First-time house renovation

andrew-b

TomsMom wrote: »

Pick your brains time - if you look at the photos of the light in the alcove (on the blog), we're debating what to do. We think the light is a lot more noticeable than a recessed spotlight would have been, but we couldn't have one of those. As we would rather not see the light we're thinking how it could be hidden. All we've come up with so far is to make some sort of pelmet flush with the wall, deep enough for the light not to show. Then plaster over it and paint to match the wall. I'm thinking the plaster will crack around it and it will be noticeable, lots of mess having this little job done, would it be successful or would it be obvious, is it worth doing or just leave it as it is??? What do you think? I wont be offended if you say it's a rubbish idea.

I vaguely remember discussing the recess light in the past with you...got a feeling i suggested a picture light in the past. Would you be willing to ditch the existing light fitting? If i were you i would consider some sort of LED lighting (have a look here - which is where we got all our lounge and bathroom lighting from).

As a suggestion how about creating a false panel that you could then have a suitable light recessed into. Perhaps a panel running from the top front of the alcove (always called them niches myself!) to the a couple of inches down at the rear of the niche (i.e. sloping diagonally back from the front. Then you only have the making good of the edges where the panel meets the alcove at the front, back left and right which shouldn't be too tricky. Use a piece of plasterboard or MDF or plywood, fill round the edges and then paint to match the wall.. Or even paint in a completely different colour to match elsewhere as a mini-alcove-feature-ceiling!

However what i would say is get some sort of switch installed independent of the porch light..shouldn't be too tricky to double up the porch light switch hopefully! If you ever replace the porch light with a security light with the switch permanently on you'll have your alcove light on the whole time!

Andy

jimbugalee

It's miserable in Herts too Andy and I have no heating grrrr!! Redbourn is nice

wallbash

Have only come to this thread late , so jimbugalee been renovating long .
Your blog is fairly recent.

Where you there when Buncefield occurred ?
Blew the lofthatch down and the side of the bath off in Redbourn :eek:


My MAJOR renovation was prior to blogs ( before ms windows !!)
but its a great record.

Ps House is just off the common, can hear the cricket on a Sunday.

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

I vaguely remember discussing the recess light in the past with you...got a feeling i suggested a picture light in the past.

That's right Andy. We couldn't find anything we liked. It was also very difficult to find something that wasn't switched or needed a transformer, as both those options were bulky and obvious. I think we'd got our minds fixed on a recessed spotlight, our original intention, so were really disappointed when we discovered it couldn't be done. Not sure how come we didn't notice this at the time, but the electricians came on an "as needed" basis and were called in by the builders. They'd usually come and gone by the time we turned up late in the day to check on progress.

Would you be willing to ditch the existing light fitting? If i were you i would consider some sort of LED lighting (have a look here - which is where we got all our lounge and bathroom lighting from).

That light was very cheap and I'd be happy to change it. I've looked at your link. Had you seen something that you think would fit the bill?

As a suggestion how about creating a false panel that you could then have a suitable light recessed into. Perhaps a panel running from the top front of the alcove (always called them niches myself!) to the a couple of inches down at the rear of the niche (i.e. sloping diagonally back from the front. Then you only have the making good of the edges where the panel meets the alcove at the front, back left and right which shouldn't be too tricky. Use a piece of plasterboard or MDF or plywood, fill round the edges and then paint to match the wall.. Or even paint in a completely different colour to match elsewhere as a mini-alcove-feature-ceiling!

That's a good idea, OH only came up with the pelmet idea so it's always worth throwing these things open and seeing what others can come up with. I wonder if there would be enough room for a recessed light? Not quite sure how much room you need for those. I did suggest that we could paint the whole of the alcove (niche ) in the malt chocolate that's on the one wall, it wouldn't be too dark behind the vase and would save cutting in as I'm sure that would show up any wobbly corners.

However what i would say is get some sort of switch installed independent of the porch light..shouldn't be too tricky to double up the porch light switch hopefully! If you ever replace the porch light with a security light with the switch permanently on you'll have your alcove light on the whole time!

There's already a switch plate with four switches on - hall, landing, porch and an outside (side of the house) light. So no room to put another switch. Just thought, if they don't make a plate with 5 switches on, perhaps that's why the electricians "forgot" to connect this wiring to a switch??? Maybe that's me being a bit cynical again!

Actually, now I come to think of it, I don't know whose fault it is that there isn't enough room to have a recessed spotlight in there. That could be down to the builders. Oh..... I'll have to stop thinking, I'm winding myself up here!

andrew-b

Reason i suggested LED lighting is LEDs take up physically less space but i forgot about transformers ! I was thinking just small downlights recessed into the false panel but they still seem to take up more space than i thought they would.

Andy

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

Reason i suggested LED lighting is LEDs take up physically less space but i forgot about transformers ! I was thinking just small downlights recessed into the false panel but they still seem to take up more space than i thought they would.

Andy

Ah, OK. Still, your idea about the false panel could possibly work with the one we've got, it would hide the bulk of it, and the wire that's showing at the moment. I'll have a word with OH when he gets back.

suisidevw

Evening all,

Been busy and getting there with the house. For those that haven't seen, pics and brief write up on p88 so you can see what we did to the flooring and the walls etc!

Anyway, so the last pic there was our bedroom decorated, and since then we have done the 2 others, had all upstairs carpeted (which meant we could unpack our boxes), had new bed delivered (No pic of this, the bed shown is in the spare room), and done a few other bits and pieces. Will show some pics later on this week. Just got the fireplace to order and then from next week we'll take on the bathroom as our project. needs completely stripping and rebuilding!

The pics show the spare room as soon as carpet was down (few weeks ago) and our room (were living out of cases until our bed arrived) and the house set up for a house warming. We put invites out to 11 of our neighbours and everyone made it! Was a great way to meet the street and those that couldn't make it dropped us in a card with flowers etc!

Hope you guys like

TomsMom

Looking good Suiside, the parquet floor is beautiful, and what a difference your carpet makes. I love the shoes at the top of the stairs, that's what we do - shoes off before walking into the carpetted area!

Sounds like you've got good neighbours, and what a great way to meet them.

jimbugalee

Susie - the house looks great!!! It's so nice to have a housewarming (and one all the neighbours come to!). Keep up the good work Love the carpet on the stairs ...

suisidevw

Thanks both! Yup, no shoes upstairs now, we leave a few at the bottom so hopefully guests get the idea!

For those moving into new areas, I recommend doing what we did, put on some food and drink and had open house from 2-6. Was great and now we say hello to everyone in the street!

Glad you like the carpet on the stairs. We knew after research that there would be a problem with dust, but hoovering a couple of times a week seems to keep it fine!