Cove lighting is an excellent choice for your home or business

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If you want to crank it up a notch in your home, install dramatic cove lighting

If you want to add some real pizazz to the interior of your house, install cove lighting for design drama. Cove lighting is indirect lighting that comes from above or below valances, horizontal recesses on an upper wall or in the ceiling or from ledges. Cove lighting is an architectural luminary that directs light up to the ceiling.

Coves are great in rooms with vaulted or high ceilings and they are also quite effective when placed above kitchen cabinets. Cove lighting will distribute light over the ceiling and add some real flavor and mood to your room. One of the perks of cove lighting design is that the fixtures are hidden and the light that is provided is very warm and even.

Cove lighting is generally concealed behind a cornice or a horizontal recess, which points the light on the ceiling. It is a very effective technique for creating ambient lighting. Cove lighting, which is indirect lighting, is generally installed along the recesses in the upper, dark edges of a room or along upper edges. Cove lighting aims light at the ceiling and down adjacent walls. Sometimes cove lighting is purely for aesthetic purposes but it can also be used for primary lighting.

Cove lighting is ambient lighting, meaning light that comes from all directions. Examples of ambient lighting, in addition to cove light, are valance lighting, recessed down lights, wall washers, soffit lighting, track lights, pendant lights, sconces, chandeliers, under-cabinet lighting, portable fixtures and surface-mounted lights.

When selecting cove lighting design, you can choose from incandescent lighting fixtures as well as xenon and fluorescent. The cove lights can come in strips or ropes of lights.

You can achieve cove lighting by installing fluorescent tubes or LED strips. Include a dimmer so you can control the brightness of the cove lighting. LED lights come in daylight colors, warm white and a variety of other colors.

Rope light is the term for accent lights that come in long tubes. Rope lighting can be used in your house or outside, on a fence for example, and results in great drama, as well as provides functional lighting. If you want the focus to be on something in particular in your room, such as the beautiful crown molding, use rope lighting as your cove lighting.

Rope lights come in a variety of colors. A typical rope light is made of micro bulbs that are situated about once inch apart and are contained in colored or clear flexible PVC resin tubing.

Rope lights can be put along the edge of a ceiling or chair rail or molding, along shelves and mantles, inside closets or cabinets. Cove lighting design allows cords and heavy fixtures, including the actual rope lights, to be hidden. All you see is the tantalizing glow of the light.

You must situate the lights in the proper location to get the correct results. This type of lighting can cast a glow in a room in a very dramatic way or it can be installed as a primary light source depending on how you choose to use your cove lighting. Before installing cove lighting, consider how you want it to be used and what effects you are trying to achieve and proceed from there.

When installing cove lighting for design drama in your house, place them at least 18 inches from the ceiling and approximately 6.5 feet from the floor to get the best outcome.

Remember that cove lighting design distributes lighting upward whereas valances distribute light up and down and soffits distribute light downwards. Cove, valance and soffit luminaries will flatter the interior of your house and, in addition, can provide extra lighting for your countertops when used in the kitchen or bathroom.

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