recessed lights placement

The placement of the recessed lights varies with the type of lighting: task lighting, for reading or cooking works; accent lighting involving artwork or other elements; indirect lighting of a wall or part of a room; lighting a whole area (general lighting)…

Distances

Do not place recessed lights too close to the walls. Place the lights at least 3 inches away from them.

Light fixtures are often spaced 4 to 10 inches apart, to get an even light distribution, but that depends largely on the effects and type of lighting or on elements like the size of the fixture: 4-inch fixtures are placed closer (but at least 4 feet apart) while 6-inch fixtures are placed 6 feet apart or more.

Type of Trims

Too highlight specific features, or to get indirect lighting (focusing the light to the walls) or for some task lights you will need adjustable trims, commonly called Eyeball Lights or Gimbals.

See: Adjustable Eyeball-Lights and Fixed-Down….

Spacing the lights for general lighting

When using sets of recessed lights, space them properly... Good recessed design principles often demand the cones of light to overlap – which requires a relatively close distance between lights but may also cause too much brightness or collide with energy-efficiency purposes.

On this issue, do not forget the basics of modern ambient lighting - often an indirect back-lighting system, setting the backdrop for more specific types of lighting (the task and the accent lighting).

Avoid installing recessed lights in long rows down the center of a room. Use recessed lighting moderately and with sense.

Unless in specific cases, recessed ambient lighting should only provide relatively small levels of illumination, often indirect. Recessed lighting can be combined with non-recessed types of lighting with advantage.

Recessed indirect lighting

Recessed lights can be used to get wall-washing lighting, to make rooms look larger and to avoid glare. That type of indirect lighting is achieved by placing recessed fixtures around the perimeter of a room or a wall, and angling the lights down, to the wall(s).

That technique is also used in accent lighting, to display artwork or other special elements in the room.

Avoiding shadows and the blocking of light

Recessed lights for work areas should be carefully placed overhead in order to stay in front of the people performing the tasks.

In kitchens, recessed lights are characteristically installed at the bottom of the cabinets (spaced about 3 inches apart), washing the countertop. In bathrooms, to avoid the casting of shadows, lights are placed overhead, in each side of the mirror.

In some cases, other types of indirect lighting (coming from wall sconces, for instance) can help to avoid unwanted shadows and glare.

Recessed accent lighting

Recessed Eyeball Lights are excellent for accent lighting To highlight paintings and other two dimensional objects, we can use just one fixture (a recessed adjustable eyeball light) centered overhead, in front of the objects.

As for highlighting architectural and other three dimensional features, is more effective to use two or three lights, focusing from different angles.