Well, in a word… Versatility! Track lighting offers fantastic versatility, both by the placement of the lights, but also because it’s user friendly in the installation. Here are some rooms I’ve installed track lighting in and you might just be amazed in the versatility track lighting really does offer…
to start out with, here’s a picture of the dining room in our former house. It was a wonderfully large room and we had a super long dining table in there. One chandelier in the center of the table just wouldn’t look balanced or get the job done.
So we installed an 8′ length of track lighting.
Track lighting can be purchased as complete kits, with all the components including track, power hook up and fixtures. I’ve done that before, but usually I prefer to buy the components separately so that I have more control of how the track lays out, with additions to it, as well as selecting my own fixtures. You can buy track lighting both ways through The Home Depot, kits or separate components… (and they’ll even ship direct to your house so you don’t need to go out)
On each end of it we put flood track lighting fixtures to point towards those two outside walls. For the table lighting, and for visual appeal, we hung 2 chandeliers over the table. These were standard chandeliers meant to be hardwired, that I simply attached a chandelier track light adapter onto. (this works well for light weight chandeliers or pendants only)
In the kitchen of our former house, where there was a cathedral ceiling I installed track lighting. With the accessories of bendable track and T’s it totally took care of the whole main kitchen lighting.
There was one ceiling chandelier in the kitchen when we bought this house, and that’s all you need to install a room full of track lighting, like this. Just one electrical box. So no electrician is necessary. It’s a simple DIY ceiling light change.
I love how I could just ‘pop’ on another fixture if I felt I needed more light, or adjust the angle a bit to completely avoid any shadows in my kitchen prepping.
In ‘the little brick cottage‘, an antique cottage I renovated a few years ago, we installed track lighting over the peninsula. Again, as in the dining room of our former house, I used 2 different style fixtures on this one track. I used spot light fixtures to give over all lighting in the back entry doorway area, then I made and installed these cute mason jar pendants for visual appeal over the peninsula.
To make the pendants was pretty easy, and since then, I’ve seen pendant kits available at World Market to make it even easier.
But at the time, this is pretty much the stuff I used to make it with.
That square-ish shaped thing on the right is the track light pendant adapter, be sure to check out the whole DIY tutorial I wrote about this and it gives you more details about the adapter.
In our 100 year old house we now live in, I’ve used track lighting in the kitchen again. (pretty much every kitchen I’ve remodeled for me or one of my clients, I’ve installed track lighting in. That’s how much I love it!)
For this kitchen we had to gut it just about completely, except for the floor, then we installed this faux tin tile drop ceiling. Track lighting was the perfect option for this room. It offers great versatility to point the lights where you need them to cover the whole room.
In this kitchen, there are 2 other lighting sources… under cabinet lights, (can’t imagine using a kitchen without those now) and these cute reproduction pendant lights from Rejuvenation Lighting over the peninsula.
In this 100 year old house of ours, where we didn’t replace all the ceilings, and needed more light, but didn’t have room for recessed cans, track lighting is a perfect option. In fact, I have it installed not only in our kitchen, but in our breakfast room, in our office, and in the old maid’s room, (which is now my sewing craft room).
So if you have a room with insufficient lighting because you only have a single ceiling fixture, like so many older kitchens, you may really want to consider track lighting… it’s so versatile! 😉
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