07 March 2013 - Brighter idea in the living and dining room

Following the kitchen renovations on mid-January (see here), we decided that the electrician was "capable" enough to do something similar in our living & Dining room ;-)

We decided to replaced all "chandelier" and ceiling lights and replace them by similar recessed lights. 

The only difference is the outside "ring" which is "black" in the kitchen (due to the low ceiling) and white elsewhere. The electrician managed to find almost the same lights enclosure has what has been originally installed...about 10 years ago!!!

Here are a few pictures of the "before":

Ceiling light in the lobby

The dining table light and the stairs light...

The team made a great work! It was not very easy to add additional lights in the ceiling; they had to run a cable from the ceiling, down to the basement and up again to the main light-switch board...without breaking anything!!! I now have a cable going through my garage but this is ok (they did the best they could possibly do).

Now the "during" pictures:

The ceiling is about 18 feet high (6 meters)...so is the ladder!!!

They left the ladder that evening so that I could touch up a little the ceiling (paint)

Everything was done in about a day and a half. In total, they have installed 12 recessed lights, in which I inserted energy efficient light bulbs. I have now reduced my electricity usage to about 1/10th of what I was using originally! 
   
The results is breathtaking, we should have done that a long time ago. The main lobby is now super bright and it really looks so much nicer than before.

Our new lobby

 As per the living & dining area, we initially were quite sceptical to have  recessed lights on a so high ceiling. We were a little "afraid" that it will look like a museum or an art gallery. Playing with the light intensity on the two zones (dining / Living room), helped to create different zones and it is now perfectly set-up. Look by yourself!

Our new lights in the stairs

Our new dining & living room

 We actually installed brighter light bulbs on top of the dining area (120 watt equivalent); everywhere else, we have 65 watt equivalent.

What will be our next renovations? You'll see in a future episode ;-)