Lighting in my sewing room
My sewing room is 15x15 and my sewing room closet where I have all of my fabric stored on 84x48x14 chrome shelving units. After I moved everything out a couple of years ago, I painted the room a very light beige. In my sewing room closet, my husband hung two 4 ft. LED strip lights that I purchased from Home Depot for $129.00 each. That made all the difference in the world in my closet.
For natural lighting in my sewing room, I have very large windows that cover most of one wall and one window on the other wall - all of which works good during the daytime. I have several stand-alone OTT lights, several table top OTT lights and several other various lights plus a big clamp-on light with a magnifier. In addition I have a celing fan that has two bulbs inside the globe and 2 wall sconces. There was not enough light to sew at night (for me). I like lots of light - all the time. But - I really did not want to spend a fortune of fixtures (like I have in the closet - 8 would cost me well over $1,000 more)!
I finally told my husband that I am tired of worrying about what looks good rather than what works for me. I needed to remind myself - it's a sewing room, not a show room! I have been studying lighting, reading up on lighting, looking at lighting - until I was blue in the face! Decision time! Day before yesterday, we went to Costco and purchased 8 - 4ft. LED shop lights that can be installed in parallel. Each one puts out 3,700 lumens. Since there are no ballasts or bulbs to go out or replace, there will not be any humming, and they come on immediately when turned on. And, the price was right - $19.99 each on sale. My husband is installing them in a square configuration (with the ceiling fan in the center). So far, he has 3 installed and it already makes a world of difference! I can hardly wait until he has them all installed. To heck with beauty and design - I'm sticking to practicality!