apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

If your place still feels dark even with all those lights, your wall or floor colour might be too dark. All the lights in the world won't help cheer that up! Paint and/or get a light area rug. Out goes any overstuffed black leather furniture too...

One tip I've discovered is once you get enough light, try rearranging your lighting from time to time for a new look! Lights in the corners make the room seem bigger.

There is no way other than bringing more light lower down - you can't expect any lights 16 feet away to provide excellent illumination for all purposes unless you want to live under the kind of super-bright lamps used to shoot movies. Your space (as do most spaces) probably needs ambient, task, and accent lighting. It sounds like your overhead floods are only meeting the ambient need and your space wants more lamps or fittings to meet the task and accent needs.

I'm not a lighting designer by any stretch, but I what I know I've mostly got from reading on the subject. Why not check out a basic lighting design book or web site to see what solutions might work best for your needs?

Second above. You can get pendant lamps which should hang 8-9' above floor for best lighting; you can get a fixture that just screws into the overhead lamp socket, a cord and the pendant and wire it yourself.

Use accent lighting - table/floor lamps also; more lamps (not necessarily more light, in fact most lighting standards specify way too much) are good and increase flexibility. A 13/15w cfl is enough for most fixtures.

Another great trick is to use wall washing lights, that will help illuminate your brick, and bring out their great texture in the room. You can do this using a recessed style light or a track. Also, low voltage lights on a monorail track using some hang down pendants or lights that hang down and pivot would look great, and would allow you some more directional lighting. You may also want ot consider increasing the wattage of your existing lights.

I second adding pendant/chandelier lights in critical areas.

My previous place was an open timber loft, similar to yours, and I had halogen tracks. They provided a really great amount of light, plus they looked cool. I also liked that I could aim the individual bulbs to highlight what I wanted, whether it was a piece of furniture or art on the wall.

http://www.lighting-direct.co.uk/images/products/LDI181080.jpg They were along this line.

I'm running into this problem now as I just bought my first loft this weekend (yay!). There are some wall sconces that aim downwards, some icky track lighting in the hallway, and ugly pendants in the kitchen. The kitchen, bathrooms and hallways are nicely lit (though ugly), but the massive living room and bedroom are dark as can be. I don't have the time right now to invest in installing new lights, so lamps it is for now.