Does your living room have lights?

[phil]

while Im doing my living room, I could add lights to the ceiling. Part of me wants to but then maybe not having them reflects upon the heritage look and gives me reason for a few free standing ones. I have enough plugs, I rewired, I can add them if I want but I'm not sure if adding them is really a bonus or if it just takes away from the heritage aspect. my bedrooms had lights, but my living room never had them.

I did add a three way switch that controls two outlets, one on either side of the bay window. if I added ceiling lights I'd just wire into that so the switch would turn on both outlets and the ceiling lights..

both outlets are in receptacles with two outlets so I made them it so one outlet isn't switched and one is, that way I can plug stuff in that I don't want switched on the top outlet and one that is switched on the bottom outlet. I have lots more outlets so I don't need more of those, and the wiring is simple If I do want them. especially now with the walls open.

So I wondered how many here had lights in the living room originally? would you add them if they didn't' exist?

[JacquieJet]

Our living room doesn't have any ceiling lights, although we do have the two wall sconces. Originally there were four sconces, but two were removed when the renovations happened (by a PO). Our dining room also doesn't have any lighting, but that's because it used to be the sunroom (the former dining room is now a sitting area and main floor bathroom, again thanks to that renovation :/ ). We are planning to add a little chandelier to the current dining room, but who knows when that will be!

[Mick_VT]

My place didnt have electric lights originally being built in rural Vermont in the early 1860s

when they did fit knob and tube electrickery in the 1920s, the elctrician just drilled hither and thither and ran wires wherever he fancied, often on top of the plaster and through door casings! At that time a single solitary bulb holder was added to the dining room offset from the middle of the room - perhaps above the table?

[SkipW]

Our 1907 cottage does not have any ceiling lights in the living room. (I don't know when electricity was added, it was built as a summer camp) It is actually very small and we have one floor lamp and one table lamp and they do a fine job of lighting the room. I am not a fan of ceiling lights in general and really like indirect (floor/table/sconce/torchiere) lighting.

I do like recessed lighting in rooms that need a lot of light for working, like a kitchen. When we remodeled the kitchen, I added recessed lights and under counter lighting and also in the bathroom, although there I added sconces on either side of the mirror above the sink.

Ceiling lights, either flush or semi-flush, just don't give good, flattering light in my opinion. A bulb (or a couple) in the middle of the room, lighting the ceiling and down lighting everything and everyone just doesn't do it for me.....

/soapbox

[Ober51]

Our 1902 house does not have overhead lights in the living room. When we were looking at the wall, my brother thought he noticed a bump. So he took a hammer...and found two sconces. We rewired those (and the entire house) and will use another floor lamp.

[Jamie]

It was back in the mid 1980's halogen lighting was just coming into vogue. At the time I bought a number of Halogen wall sconces. These use 300 watt bulbs and are controlled by dimmer switches in a wall switch. A halogen fixture in alternate corners of the room will fully illuminate the entire room. This eliminates the need for table and floor lamps. This style fixture was only on the market for a decade or so. I believe the hot bulb was responsible for fires when curtains or drapes would come in contact. Believe me, if a flying bug hits it, it sure sends out a smell!

The hanging fixture and unlit side lights over the mantle are gas. It is too hot to even think of lighting these....

[Vala]

We have ceiling lights in every room. We dont have any original fixtures anymore. The PO replaced all the 1960s fixtures with modern ones that have ceiling fans.

[Corsetière]

My parlor does have a center light, but my master only had sconces as far as I could tell. I'm guessing my place is late 1890's but I haven't found conclusive proof of that yet...

[Wackyshack]

My neighbor's house is a duplicate of mine and theirs was just about original condition when they moved in. The woman was still heating the house with the small plug in stoves and the house had no heating system.

The parlour and the dining room had no above ceiling light. House was built in 1880.

On the flip side my friend's house across town (same house except they didn't get the porch). was built in 1890 and they had a ceiling light.

Neither were very high end houses but more on the 3/4 story cottage sized house 1100 sqft
space.

[Mick_VT]

Ceiling lights seem to make the most sense when you have really high ceilings, especially in places where you might want to spread the light - like an entrance hall or dining room. In my house the ceilings are barely 8' so although I do have some ceiling lights they have to be very low profile. In those late Victorians with 10' ceilings it is far more practical.