As The Workhouse Approaches....How To Do Everything To Avoid It, the Old Style Way

GreyQueen

Hi jamanda, difficult to advise without seeing the layout of your kitchen but severl of my rellies use boring old fluoruescent tubes. Cover comes off to be washed and they're energy efficient. Some people don't care for the quality of light, tho, and it wouldn't serve for task-lighting.

I just have a boring old central light fitting but then my kitchen is a 6 foot square box of white melamine cabinets, so doesn't need a lot of lighting anyway.

Remmeber, the principle rule of OS is that you have to put the kettle on LOTS.

jamanda

GreyQueen wrote: »

Hi jamanda, difficult to advise without seeing the layout of your kitchen but severl of my rellies use boring old fluoruescent tubes. Cover comes off to be washed and they're energy efficient. Some people don't care for the quality of light, tho, and it wouldn't serve for task-lighting.

I just have a boring old central light fitting but then my kitchen is a 6 foot square box of white melamine cabinets, so doesn't need a lot of lighting anyway.

Remmeber, the principle rule of OS is that you have to put the kettle on LOTS.

Fluorescent strips would look awful in there. It is farmhousey style.

The kettle is on far too much, which is why I'm trying to get the lighting down a bit - we'll soon not afford to have both!

Kitchen is an L shape and really a bit daft and the L bit is more a short corridor with a dresser in it (and various assorted abandoned shoes, slippers, DH "stuff" etc.)

Note: Do not have dressers with flat surfaces when you have a messy, untidy DH. You'd be amazed how much junk they can stack up until it falls over.

Skint_but_Optimistic

I have some spots but tend to use the undercupboard lights alot, I think you can get them individulaly wired and could pop them on the dressers. The blue and yellow swedish people do a lot of lighting solutions and some of those are farmhouse style.

It is hard work being OS - I just want to be able to get my house cleaned up to a decent standard. Work is getting in the way and having an ill baby and rainy weather isnt helping.

I am resorting to the list!

mardatha

I know this will sound mad, and probably is mad, but!! - we have a gorgeous 10" high paraffin lamp that OH got from his mum many years ago when they had a caravan without mains elect. It's very pretty, all glass. I got him to dig it out of the shed and clean it up and it makes a lovely ornament ...Hmmm. maybe its wasted as an ornament and would be nice in one's bog?
(one's bog which overlooks only fields and therefore one's neighbours will not think one canny pay the bill)...

maryb

sorry not too helpful for a quick makeover, but when we redid our kitchen I planned energy efficient lighting. I found you could get compact flourescent bulbs for downlighters. so the main part of our kitchen is lit with 9 x 9 watt bulbs plus a few under cabinet fluorescent tubes. In total less than two 60 watt light bulbs. (If you pay a bit extra you can get bulbs that don't take long to get to full brightness. In any case the under cabinet tubes light up instantly). The conservatory which leads off the kitchen has a stainless steel chandelier type fitting with frosted glass shades which hide ordinary compact fluorescents. It's increasingly easy to get fittings which are designed to hide the less attractive but more efficient bulbs.

Anyway, the point is - Take one of the bulbs in your existing fittings to an electrical store - the sort that electricians go to - and see what alternatives you can get. Before we redid the kitchen we found we could put ordinary compact fluorescents in our fittings. They didn't look as good as what we have now but it really wasn't too bad

jamanda

Thanks for the info. I've managed low calorie bulbs everywhere else but am totally phased by the kitchen. I've just been browsing kitchen lighting but I think I need to go and look and touch. I'm really fed up with the existing manky ones. Bought them years ago because they would "do" and they were cheap and nasty then. DH input required here I think (Guess who has to put them up!).

I'll have to chew on this one for a bit until inspiration strikes.

Softstuff

Our new light fittings are brighter than our last (I was starting to have issues not seeing things) and we're open plan. In the front room/dining room/kitchen we have 4 ceiling fittings - 1 is the entryway and that's never on, the one over the sofa has 11w and a 14w energy saving bulbs as does the one over hubbys desk, then the one in the kitchen has 2 x 20w extra bright energy saving bulbs. The kitchen is as bright as sunny daylight, and yet it's the equivalent of 1 40w bulb in usage.

Our light fittings would look good in a farmhousy setting (we're sort of dark-wood-homey in here), but of course they're australian. They look like this:


We switch off each area when we're not using it and I'm happy with the energy consumption. I'd noticed when we had it darker in here it also felt a fair bit colder and gloomier, so I think it's worth having a few extra watts with an energy saving bulb.

mrswive

Just wanted to share my great bargain of the day (you lot are the only ones who'll understand my excitement; everyone I know in RL would look at me blankly!)
We have an M&S credit card - we got it for the 0% for a year and kept it when the year was up (paying off in full every month of course) as we get quite a few vouchers which come in handy for Xmas - and I was sent a '£5 off Home' voucher. I duly toddled off to our local M&S and was weighing up between an egg poacher and a set of pastry cutters, both £5. I decided on the egg poacher, then found a set of the pastry cutters reduced to £1 as there was a miniscule dent in one of them. Result!

PS. I've just had the first perfect poached egg I've ever made, (it's always been one thing I could never get right) so I'm v. happy.

jamanda

Softstuff wrote: »

Our new light fittings are brighter than our last (I was starting to have issues not seeing things) and we're open plan. In the front room/dining room/kitchen we have 4 ceiling fittings - 1 is the entryway and that's never on, the one over the sofa has 11w and a 14w energy saving bulbs as does the one over hubbys desk, then the one in the kitchen has 2 x 20w extra bright energy saving bulbs. The kitchen is as bright as sunny daylight, and yet it's the equivalent of 1 40w bulb in usage.

Our light fittings would look good in a farmhousy setting (we're sort of dark-wood-homey in here), but of course they're australian. They look like this:


We switch off each area when we're not using it and I'm happy with the energy consumption. I'd noticed when we had it darker in here it also felt a fair bit colder and gloomier, so I think it's worth having a few extra watts with an energy saving bulb.

Thanks. I like those. I'm vaguely thinking of something similar but a bit flatter - like they've been sat on. Finding them however......

Skint_but_Optimistic

mrswife Fabulous!! Love a bargain!!!