apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have no advice, in fact, I have essentially the same question for MY space.

Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced lighting designer who knows her/his way around an NYC apartment where one space serves many functions?

I just removed an almost identical fixture from over my dining table. It was HORRIBLE. It was impossible to position the lights so that they didn't burn out peoples' retinas. My suggestion is to go for much softer and more diffuse lights than halogens. I replaced my fixture with a nelson bubble lamp, and I added a few other table lamps to the room to make up for the light I was removing from above.

I agree with those lights being difficult to position when they are installed in the center of a room (where the walls are far away). Those are essentially spot lights and should be pointed to a spot somewhere. If not you will notice your guests trying to avoid standing or sitting in certain parts of the room.

(This happens at a friend's place. I have already offered to move them to the entrance hallway...)

BUT if you aim them high enough they should be okay. I would consider putting them on a dimmer and definitely augmenting the room with other light sources (table lamps, floor uplights, etc...).

I have a similar ikea spot light with halogens in my kitchen (really a corner of my great room) and I love it, but the point of it was to focus the spots on the counters and stove. A better overall light source for our great room (about 22 X 24 fr) has been the white fabric hanging pendant on a dimmer hanging over our dining table, which gives a nice diffuse light that can be ratcheted up or down, plus a floor lamp and a table lamp for specific spots. Your room is a little smaller that ours so the halogen may work, but I agree with Maxwell-- don't spend any money. Rather, you should buy a cheap white one and see if you like the light it gives. If you like it you're golden-- if you don't you're out 50 bucks and the 45 minutes it took to install.

my neighbor has those in her living room and kitchen and they're just weird. no only are they TOO bright at times, they give off lots of heat. she'll flip them on for 20 minutes and then have to turn them off cause the room gets too hot.

i would really try to go with another option...

If the idea is to illuminate the whole room with one light, this won't do it. As stated earlier, these are more for adding light accents to the room. Your floor lamps and table lamps will need to do the heavy lifting in terms of overall illumination. I have a couple of these sorts of fixtures (different style but same idea) that I purchased at Ikea and I am really happy with them. I use narrow beam low wattage bulbs that I got at a local specialty bulb store and added dimmers to each of the fixtures (you need dimmers that work with ballast lighting or the fixtures will "sing" when they are dimmed...). With these additions, they create a beautiful moody atmosphere for a super low price. But if I lose a contact lens or want to read the paper, I have to turn on a lamp.