Open Plan Ceiling Dilemma

8 years ago

Hi All,

We have an open plan living/kitchen/dining area of around 12m x 7.5m. Of this the rear 2m is a sloping ceiling finishing at the rear wall to the garden which is almost fully glazed with a combination of sliding doors/windows etc. We have the following 2 options for the remainder of the ceiling

1) Have 1 level at a height of 2.35m

2) Have 2 downstands of around 15-20cm along the length of the room (to hide the beams) and a ceiling height of 2.45m elsewhere. We could also add additional downstands to create square or rectangular patterns in the ceiling. This option would allow us to have strip LED lighting in the ceiling and therefore reduce the number of spotlights.

We are going for a fairly modern minimal look but are concerned whether or not the ceiling will look too low with option 1 or too fussy with option 2.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

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Comments (4)

PRO
Darklight Design Ltd
8 years ago
Hi there.

this sounds like an interesting project and dilemma. there are a couple of options you could entertain in this instance.

1- drop the centre ceiling so its level withe the perimeter ceiling but leaving a shadow gap of 150mm. using a profile such as the DsL profile below you can easily drop in some linear led . Note the shadow gap in the ceiling of the second image. You can then add in downlighters in the dropped ceiling for general light to highlight that particular zone.

2- You could use the same profile but install it to the lower perimeter ceiling so that the light washes into the raised ceiling such as the picture below. This will add height and by adding in downlighters to the middle areas you can define that zone.

Pendants instead of or as well as the downlights can further enhance the living zone depending on if you have an island/table over which to hang some decorative lights.

I hope this information helps and good luck with the project.
Chetan Mehta
8 years ago
Thank you so much for your advice DD Ltd. It is very much appreciated. I'm attaching a photo (very rough I'm afraid) to show one of the proposals. Instead of having the downstands visible we could simply lower the whole flat section of roof. Or I guess to follow your suggestion we would need to create an additional downstand along the side of the room adjoing the hall and utitlity and then create 2 sections in the middle (1 between each downstand). Is that right?
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PRO
Darklight Design Ltd
8 years ago
Hi Chetan, now I understand.

If the downstands are just hiding the beams then i may consider using the DSL profile still but on the outer sides of the beam rather than the inner. this is for detail only but will create a nice wash of light in those narrower areas. I would then consider pendants above the island and downlights to the other areas for general lighting but maybe position them more so they are specific to the furniture placement within the room.

hope this makes sense.
chetancsm
Original Author
8 years ago
Apologies for the delay however once again thank you DD Ltd for your advice. It is very much appreciated.

Open Plan Ceiling Dilemma

Comments (4)

Darklight Design Ltd

Chetan Mehta

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chetancsm
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