Coffer Lighting: ceiling height too low?

[ToughButterCup]

We really wanted coffer lighting ( sometimes called cove lighting), like this - or something like this

 

]

 

But now that I've read Lucy Martin (2003) The Bible of Home Lighting (page 111) and looked at our ceiling level I realise the importance of a callout on page 111 

 

Quote

Don't

• use coffers, coves or dropped ceilings where your existing ceiling is below 2.4 meters (8 feet)

 

Bummer.

Short of sawing off the bottom chord of a few POSIs ......

 

And then I saw this YT video of Robin Clevett's kitchen. Made me think I might just be able to squeeze one  in.

When all the ceiling PB and skimming and floor is finished we should have a little under 2.4m clearance.

Thats not enough is it?

 

Any way round this little hiccup?

 

 

 

[ProDave]

Why is it not enough?  I know you are somewhat taller than me, but what finished headroom do you want to achieve?  I have seen similar arangements achieved with a 100mm drop so you would have a ceiling height of the lower bit of about 2300mm.

[ToughButterCup]

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

Why is it not enough?  ... 

Because the author said so. Far too respectful me. I'll keep looking.

[nod]

The higher the better normally 

but if you are looking for some ideas It may be worth a trip up to Stanley house on the outskirts of Preston I installed coffers in most of the rooms a few years back 

Grab a coffee and a cake and a look round 

Heights range between 2.5 and 2..3 

[ProDave]

I was working in a house where they did the opposite.  Dropped section in the middle with LED lights around it, leaving the perimeter at the original 2400 height, and it did not feel as though the ceiling was too low.

[vivienz]

I would guess that it's also dependent on the size of the room it goes into and the proportional dimensions of the dropped section. My celings downstairs are mostly 2.7m but that's to maintain the proportion with the size of the large open plan room.

I reckon that if you exercise some restraint on the dimensions, you could do it. Don't forget, either, that things look much smaller as bare plaster compared to when they are painted, particularly if they are white.

 

[vivienz]

Could you do a cardboard mock up and stick it to your ceiling and get a feel for it?

[vivienz]

FWIW, this is how ours looks now.

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, vivienz said:

FWIW, this is how ours looks now.

What is the ceiling heights of the raised and dropped areas?

[vivienz]

The centre is the full height ceiling, 2700mm. The border around the edges is about 150mm depth.

[Adam2]

Slightly off-topic @vivienz but interested that you have no additional ceiling lighting - same style we are going for to minimise the potential for warehouse lighting look with loads of spots. You find it OK at all times of day having just the inset lighting + table lights? So I recall that you had multiple LED strips to get different levels?

 

[AdamSee]

On 08/01/2020 at 19:04, vivienz said:

The centre is the full height ceiling, 2700mm. The border around the edges is about 150mm depth.

 

Don't suppose you have any pictures of this while it was been built?

 

Keen to do something very similar in one of my rooms, but unsure as to the best way to construct it. 

[vivienz]

Sorry for the delay on the reply here, I've been transferring everything to a new PC in anctipation of the death of Windows XP and 7.

 

Anyhow, I've found a few photos of the ceiling feature in the lounge area whilst under construction, so here they are.

 

First off, the entire ceiling was dry lined with acoustic plasterboard.  Heavy stuff, quite literally, and it took the PB lifter and plenty of strong arms to get it all up there.

 

After the entire lounge/diner/kitchen ceiling was boarded, construction of the dropped border area was started.  Note that the lighting electrical connections were all pulled through the boarding and in place throughout.

 

There is a perimeter border, on the top of the walls, then the inner border at the appropriate depth.  Noggins were put in all around to stabilise the whole thing and to make sure that the next lot of plasterboard had something to attach to.  The green tube poking out at the bottom just left of centre is the MVHR inlet.  There is another at the mirrored position on the right hand side, just out of shot.

 

 

Next up was boarding the dropped section.  This was done on the horizontal and then vertical pieces on the inner inset part.  The horizontal was done in two stages - first up using ply, then the plasterboard was attached to this. Also, timber was put around the edge of the inner rim in the form of an upstand.  This gives the impression of greater depth and more substance, as well as something to hide the LED lights behind.

 

 

Once all the boarding was done, plastering was next.  As seen in the photo, the inner section was done first.  You can also see the right hand MVHR inlet now.  It's worth making a comment on the staging boards, which I hired in for this job. They weren't cheap to hire, but it made the job of plastering so much easier and what it cost in hire was more than made up for by the quality of finish they were able to achieve and not having to waste time moving things around to get from one part to another.  The whole of that lounge area ceiling was plastered in a day as a result.

 

 

Here's the final plastered result, looking from the kitchen.  The excess MVHR inlets was cut away immediately before plastering.

 

 

Then, finally, here it is with the mist coat sprayed on.

 

[vivienz]

@Adam2 I have two sets of LED strips up there - 1 light switch does one set (dipped headlights) and the other brings on the second (full beam).  One set of lights is more than enough to read by - they are very effective.  If we're watching tv, we just have table lamps on and I have an overhead LED reading lamp if I was to read whilst OH watches the box.

[AdamSee]

Brilliant thanks. It certainly makes your living room feel welcoming and relaxing. 

 

My plan was to do the same as this but in a much smaller room (2.2 X 2.9m). Currently I have down lights in my office and they are horrible to have on. This idea seems like it would provide a much more relaxing enviroment to think in.

[vivienz]

I would use this feature again, not that I plan to. The wash of light on the ceiling is effective and I think it's nicer than the coving lights that you can get, which I also considered.