Post #763147 by AdOrAdam on Sun, May 1, 2016 12:13 AM

Hi all

I've slowly been working on the tiki room - my main aim recently has been to tackle the lighting.

We wanted to have 2 'lighting styles':

• the main room lights (light enough to entertain in & eat in)
• the relaxing lighting (a more intimate lighting fit enjoying after dinner drinks in or relaxing after work)

I had brought some really cheap light fittings to make shades out of spare tapa cloth - when I clipped the tapa cloth in place, this didn't look great. The shade cut out too much light & didn't create the light / dark I hoped for.

So I decided to go another way, I brought some spotlights & attached them to a 'beam' on the ceiling. For the 'beam' v1 I had used a wooden edging strip which has been a bit too thin (& was slightly wonky) so 'beam' v2 was a nice solid looking (straight) improvement.

It was also my first time changing a light fitting so I'm pleased (another thing I can do). There's now 2 sets of 2 spot lights (the main switch is a dimmer switch by the way).

I put in some spotlights & was disappointed with the result - too much bright light! Here's a pic:

I looked round for coloured light bulbs in the required fitting (LED, dimmable, screw fit) but couldn't find any; I brought some brown & orange glass paint to paint some 'warm white' bulbs up:

This finally gave me the result I was looking for, nice spotlights with light & dark:

We had friends over for thai food in the tiki room - the 'main lighting' worked well:

Now (slowly) on to the relaxing lighting!

Cheers all :)