Lighting for Quilt House
 

My DH is building a Quilt House for me, I am so excited. It's 20 by 20, I need to ask what type of lighting should we install. I know I need lots, my DH, thinks I should use track lighting. I am worried about shadows. Any ideas?

I personally do not like track lighting. If you are hanging a quilt, it will fade it. They give me headaches. I would rather have 4' flor. here and there and then task lighting for the areas as cutting board, ironing area, and then sewing machine areas. I forgot about the flannel board area. Make sure your switch at the door shuts all of the machines including your iron off. That is for safety. I would put the plug ins about 3' high up the wall in order for you to plug in something without crawling under the tables. Measure your tables, and ask him to put them a little higher for you. From past experience and for more safety for yourself, your sewing chair should face the door so you can see what is going on. Good luck. And have fun.

I am partial to LED fixtures as they provide so much light and will actually save money over florescent bulbs. IMHO "daylight" bulbs are the best and the provide light that is close to what you would have if the sun were shining. A couple weeks ago my husband changed the florescent fixture in our garage to a LED one that we found at Lowes. It looks similar to a typical florescent fixture but has an extremely low profile - about 1 inch from the ceiling. We love this fixture and a couple of them would be great for a "Quilt House".

I didn't like track lighting. Back in the 80's they were so HOT.

ragamuffin nailed it. She must have such a room. Especially the note about plugs should not be at the floor. Go back and re-read her post.

I have daylight 4' flor on one side, they give me a true color read on fabric. The new LED's (which are about $10 per bulb) are also good light and do not get hot.

My all time favorite lighting, was when I had a sewing corner (it was in an oversized living room, just around the corner from the wood stove - nice and snug). The walls and ceiling had been painted with a hi-gloss white enamel paint (only renting the house, so you get what you get - lol), all windows were behind me. I had track lighting over my sewing machines (it was like middle of the day daylight, even at 1 or 2 AM), the light bounced around in that corner so I had NO shadows. I think you need to go with MORE lighting than you think you will need (make sure you have the ability to turn off different areas of lighting individually - that way you have the amount of light you want or need at any one time), it's alway easier to turn off a set of lights then look for a way to get more after the fact. Lighting and your need will change, just as the times of day or night that you're using them. Good luck, you'll have lots of ideas to comb through.

I just did my sewing room, but we haven't done the lighting yet. We're going for the LEDs that look like the fluorescents for the reasons that Cactus Stitchin stated. Ask an electrician about having everything on one switch - my whole room is on one circuit and the lights dim and the pellet stove slows down when the iron goes into heat-up mode. When we get the lights, we're going to have the room split into a couple circuits so the iron doesn't affect my machine or the pellet stove's electronics.

Have fun!

Don't use halogen lights like I did. My room gets too warm as they give off heat

My husband is an electrician and he hung 2 8 foot fluorescent lights directly over my longarm, also in my sewing room and again over my ironing station. I love this lighting....easy on the eyes and no problem seeing. When I flip the switch in my quilt studio it's like lighting up a runway in an airport. Track lighting is not bright enough and is "spotty" Imo.

I prefer the florescent lighting. They don't create shadows -they are easy on your eyes - they are easy to install -replacement bulbs can be found any where and the price fits every one's budget. They are the most economical bulb to use. Every school in America has florescent lighting and these are the reasons they use them

Fluorescent lights emit a buzz and that can bother some people. I always hear their buzz. We have one in laundry area which gives good light but the buzzing/humming drives me crazy.

Before we finished off my quilting area, I check with our lighting store (not a box store) and they said the best task lighting was the florescent lights. We put three 4 ft lights with 4 bulbs each over my longarm, one above my cutting station and another one over my sewing machine. Lots of light and no shadows - I love it.

I have a large closet with double doors leading into it where I store my fabric and other items on 72x18x4 steel shelves. The lighting was one single light fixture with two bulbs. IMHO, I can't get too much light, so we purchased a 4-ft. 2-strip LED light fixture from Home Depot and my DH installed it. I love it! Now I can see everything at a glance. I'm still trying to figure out what to do in my sewing room since I have a ceiling fan and light in the center of the ceiling.

This is true but you should see the fading that happens to the cloth on my bulletin boards and to the construction paper used in the kids' art projects. Granted they are on for a full day at a time. I try to only use half of the lights in my classroom. Feels more soothing. Well, as soothing as it can!

I would suggest you go with some type of LED lighting. They are even cheaper to run than the fluorescents and they don't have any UV in them to cause problems with fabric fading.
Many schools are now switching from fluorescents to LEDs or just plain old light bulbs because some students are sensitive to the buzz and the minute flicker that they do give off.
I like a lot of light too!!

Ethel

I use track lights in my sewing room and the fabric room. But I use LED bulbs and tracks. I have no shadows as I use long attachable tracks. I also have 2 pendent lights off of the tracks. Cheap to run and not hot or harsh. I use daylight bulbs for true clear color. Luann

Wow a quilt house would be my dream. I think I would like recessed can lights. You can choose all kinds of bulbs for those and they work for most situation and when they don't you usually need task lighting anyway. Good luck and show us your progress.

This is the lighting I chose to put in my room. They are LED lights that I bought from Lowes. They are about 80 dollars each. I put six of them in my room and it is like a sunny day in their with the lights on.

MJHaess;

Love those lights. Beautiful!! I want some!

That looks like a beautiful spot.

What size is your room?

I should design your floor layout and look where you want light to come from. I would have plenty of sockets to plug in machines etc and lights.

My DH purchased daylight 100 watt LED bulbs only Home Depot seems to have them, I can see everywhere! Not cheap but supposed to last 30 years. The lighting is true so you can see every shade of the fabric

Another great reason for using LED - they draw much less electricity than incandescent or fluorescent bulbs so if you are putting more things on one circuit you stand a much better chance. My dining room is where I sew and I have 6 LED bulbs in a regular "dining room" fixture that we have adjusted to be close to the ceiling. There are no dim spots in my room, the color temperature does not throw off the colors like florescent bulbs (greenish/yellow color) and there is no heat accumulated in the room. Just my thoughts.....

What happened?

Outlets above table height are WONDERFUL!

My sewing room is 15' X 24' and there is only 1 small window. I went with 5 - 4' shop lights (4 bulbs each). I have tons of light, no shadowing, etc. They have worked for me for the past 10+ years. The only thing I would have done differently, would to have had each light on their own switch.