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Lighting Design Dilemma Basements

Ceiling lighting for basement cinema room / play area

10 months ago

Hi all, the concrete ceiling height of our basement area is 2m 18cm. We are turning it into a tv / cinema room and kids play area.

Trying to work out whether it is better to do tray ceiling lighting like this (https://cdn.homedit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/recessed-light-for-ceiing.jpg) or drop the whole ceiling and do spotlights.

If we dropped the whole ceiling, then we would end up at a ceiling height of 2m 12cm, as we are also laying wood flooring. I'm concerned whether that's going to feel too low?

Comments (4)

Lyn Nielson
10 months ago
how about up/down sconce lights around the room?
Susie .
10 months ago
If the main function of the room is home theatre, I’m not sure I would invest a lot of money and ceiling height into overhead lights. Sconces are an option, or you could have cove lighting installed near the ceiling around the perimeter that gives you soft lighting that doesn’t interfere with your theatre experience. It would be similar to your inspiration photo but without the down lights. Then fill in with lamps as needed if kids are playing and need more light. It’s rather simple - you can have an outlet installed on the wall that’s controlled by a switch. The outlet is hidden by crown moulding and you can run rope lighting or strip lighting in the crown.
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But in many other areas, finished basements ARE included in finished square footage and positively affect value. Do some research before you rule it out. Doing the upstairs sounds like it could be a tremendous cost, but will definitely add more equity to the home than finishing out the basement. Did you get estimates for both projects? How long do you plan on staying in the home? Is this your forever house or a 5-10yr house? If you plan on staying a long time, then the upstairs addition will pay off; if it's short term, you may not get the money back when you sell. Otoh, as Chisue said, if it's for your offices, would you be okay working in the basement? Maybe you could make it work if you dug in egress windows? Or would you rather be able to look out the window? You should also do what makes your heart happy - you only live once and it's only money, you can't take it with you. (Unless your the type of person that loses sleep over spending large amounts of money, then maybe the basement ;)
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I've used THESE 900 lumen, 6", 3000K lights with good results. I normally center the lights 36" from the wall and put them on a dimmer switch.
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Thanks for the suggestions! The previous owners who built the house used it as an office. There is no window as it is in the middle of the house surrounded on all sides. I would love to use the bonus room upstairs as a playroom later on but not until I feel comfortable w our youngest going up and down stairs well. We are leaning towards using it as mainly a storage/pantry room. The kids rooms are so big I think they can share one and the other room will be the playroom. Then when they are older they can have their own rooms and use the upstairs as a hangout space.
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G F
Original Author
10 months ago
We would like to use the room a lot for playing with the children / hanging out - so think we need more than just cove lighting.

Do you think a ceiling with recessed spotlights at a height of 2m 12 cm will be too low?
Susie .
10 months ago
By my calculations, that does not meet the International Residential Code for ceiling height - which is 7 feet or 2m 13cm. Although it's very close and if you just have a dropped area around the perimeter, and not in the center, your building inspector may be fine with that. I personally think it will feel too low for the whole ceiling to be dropped and if it were my house I would layer in light from sources other than the ceiling. Down lights are the least flattering type of lights anyway. You will get better ambiance from layers -- lamps, sconces, cove lighting.

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