happyday321.....first, if you decide to do a fan, I would not do a light kit (kind of similar to the tacky look of a white ceiling fan imo). FWIW, we didn’t install any ceiling fans in our new home (I would rather have a nice chandelier), BUT, we’re in a rental now waiting to finish up our build, and there are ceiling fans here. One of them is in a vaulted ceiling (14 feet up), and I have to say that it does help to cool thngs off for those feeling a little flash of heat now and then :) Four cans in a 20x22 foot room seems a bit skimpy to me. I am by no means a lighting expert and the amount of cans I installed in my greatroom most “normal” people would consider completely overkill. The room is 20x20, and we have 11 cans (and that lighting doesn’t include the center chandelier :) ). Two cans are directed towards the fireplace wall so let’s not count those, so that would be 9 cans. If I remember correctly, my lighting guys recommended 6 in our greatroom. My ceilings are only 10 feet and yours are 12, so that needs to be taken into account as well.

Hmm @Beth Gazley- I don’t know what happened to my comment above- it got cut off! What I said was- we are finishing an unfinished house (so we are finding a lot of weird things!). A strip light would be a really great option, or side lights if they were hanging. I’d love wall mounted side lights but they will have to wait for the main level bathroom.... I am going to a BB store today also will have another look at the options they have!! Thanks for your feedback!

Once again GreenDesigns is exhibiting his/her lack of knowledge. An exception to the minimum height requirement: "The ceiling height above bathroom and toilet room fixtures shall be such that the fixture is capable of being used for its intended purpose." And that's if your jurisdiction even uses the IRC. A municipality is free to adopt any part (or none at all) of national and international codes.

^ that's kind of the funny irony with fireplaces these days. Most of us don't use them for a main heat source, it's just for ambience/looks. People want them on, but then they end up getting too hot just like you're saying (and I agree). To combat this, they're trying to make the fireboxes smaller while keeping a big "viewing area" and it looking pretty. For example, I deal HeatNGlo and they make "slim line" models that are shallower but still appear "large" and put out less heat. I'm not sure which models all have this feature, but I have a huge Heatilator "fortress" 2-way gas fireplace in one of my commercial buildings that allows me to choose the "flame height". Low setting does put out less heat, but it's less pretty to look at. These options help but in the end, just gotta suck it up and crack a window and figure out what works best for your room In my current house I have a huge 50" HeatNGlo wood burning (open) fireplace with folding glass doors. In theory, an "open" fireplace sucks out the warm are from your house and shoots it up the chimney. Most of these today have dedicated outside "fresh air intakes" to combat this. Anyway, I love lighting (small) wood fires in my big 50". Awesome ambience, but eventually my great room gets too warm. So I crack the nearest window, life is good, I keep stoking the fire, and I keep sipping my bourbon.