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recessed accent lighting conundrum

17 years ago

Ok, here goes, hopefully I don't confuse anyone as much as I've already confused myself.

I have a room (so far so good) that has two walls, each approximately six feet long, that I would like to wash with recessed accent lighting.

I have decided that I will go with two lights on each wall (so four in total). What I don't know is what size, what trim, what bulb or how far from the wall they should be.

My options, as I see them, are:

3" cans with gimbal style trim, which hold 50W GU10 bulbs I believe.

OR

4" cans with gimbal trim that use PAR20 bulbs

OR

4" cans with wall wash scoops that use PAR20 bulbs.

Which of these would be the best option and why?

How far from the wall should they be?

What are the pros and cons of gimbal vs. wall washer?

I should mention that the room will also contain six 5" recessed downlights with baffle trim (either PAR30 or BR30s..haven't decided) for general lighting. It is a 20 x 9 room. And for one of the walls, the accent lights will be on either side of one of these 5" lights (which will probably be 30" away from the wall), so that's another reason I wanted to go smaller, since three 5" cans that close together would not look right in my opinion.

Anyways, I hope someone can shed some light on this for me (excuse the pun). If you need more info for clarity, please ask.

Thanks

Mike

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Comments (2)

Jon1270
17 years ago
The GU10 bulbs are probably line-voltage MR16s. They would be more like little spotlights; fine for highlighting a piece of art, but not for wall washing. The wall-washer trims would give the most even, diffuse light but not as much of it; a lot of light never makes it out of the scoop. The PAR20 gimbals would put more light onto the wall, but less evenly than the wall-washers; they would be less crisp and intense than the GU10s, but still have something of that spotlight effect.
nohandle
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks Jon.
But I was wondering, would two PAR20 gimbals on a six foot wall help negate some of the spotlight effect?
Or would they still have too narrow of a beam?
Also, should I go with these, what is the max. distance from the wall I should be installing them?
What about the distance for the wall washer scoops?...is 30" too much?
Thanks again.
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