Space
Walls are plasterboard or masonry behind plaster and are usually already decorated. The height of wall above a sofa, a sideboard or a stair string changes from room to room, and in older houses the walls are rarely straight.
Application
Residential Interiors (Sample Data)
This record was written for layout review. Picture and wall lights for domestic interiors, where the fitting has to sit on a wall that is already finished and usually carries a picture, a mirror or a shelf.
Photograph of this space to follow.
Image 1600 × 1200 px · 4:3
What goes wrong here
The problems this space creates
Each of these is something a fitting has to survive in this space, and each one removes some of the range.
- The wall is decorated and furnished before the lighting is chosen, so the supply is wherever the original electrician left it rather than where the picture hangs.
- The room is usually on one switch, so a light bright enough to work over a picture also lifts the whole room.
- Ceilings are low and rooms are shallow, so a fitting that projects far from the wall is noticed from the sofa.
Conditions
What the space decides before the model
These three are checked before a recommendation is made, because they cannot be changed afterwards.
Power
The supply is normally an existing socket or a spur placed for something else. Where the wall cannot be opened, the rechargeable build removes the cord altogether; where the fitting sits near a socket, the plug-in build with a cord cover keeps the installation visible but tidy.
Light
Light is aimed at the surface rather than spread across the room, and kept dim enough that the picture stays the brightest thing on the wall. The head is set so the source stays out of the seated viewer's eye and out of the glazing.
Selection
How to narrow the range
The guidance below is the same advice we give on an enquiry, written down so it can be checked before you ask.
Measure the width of the piece first and the distance the viewer stands at second, then choose the arm length and the beam to match. Where several pieces hang in one room, the same body repeated at the same height reads as one scheme.
Power types that suit this space Hardwired Rechargeable
Technical tips
What tends to decide it on site
Points that come up during installation rather than during selection.
- Test the aim with the frame hung and the furniture in place: a reflection that is invisible on the bench appears as soon as the work is on the wall.
- In a room on one switch, set the level at the fitting rather than at the wall switch, so the general light and the picture light can be balanced.
No published fitting names this space yet
A space is published with the fittings that suit it, so this list appears as the records are entered. Tell us the space, the mounting and the power available and we will answer with the models that fit instead of a list.
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