Recognize this pic? This is part 2 of Katherine's question about her hallway.
Hi AT,
Our Edwardian apartment is in possession of a long, windowless hallway with no outlets. Needless to say, it's quite dark when you come in the front door, which I hate. especially when guests come over -- tres uninviting.
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Cable lighting might be a good variation of the track lighting suggestions. You can specify the run to the full length of your hallway. The low voltage transformer can be mounted to the existing ceiling junction box, and the cables might be an elegant, unobtrusive solution. You can also place as many fixture heads as you might want or need along the length.
Places like Lamps Plus will have installers so you don't have to do it yourself.
you have my exact (so exact, it's creepy) hallway, but we have this little track (about 2-3 feet) that has adjustable halogen lights on it.
it's super bright, AND we can adjust the lights to shine where we want... so to showcase some art on the wall (or a mirror if you really want to double your light) or have it blaring light down the hallway.
ikea has lots and lots of different ceiling lights to choose from that have one hub but lead to many lights on a track. (click my name for a link)
I can't tell exactly from the picture, but it looks like your ceiling outlet for electrical is right at the end of the hall, above the door. You're also complicated by the slight curve of your ceiling. Have you thought about track lighting? I found a cool and cheap one at Home Depot in about 30 seconds of looking, it even has the base at one end. http://tinyurl.com/ywza83
Yeah, I think track lighting is the way to go if you don't want to do a lot of electrical work. It can be fairly attractive, and you can get a long track and run say, 4 lights 5 feet apart if you want to space evenly thoughout the whole hallway.
Good luck!
I think track lighting is the easiest way to go...
Our ceilings in our 70s suburban ranch all have that texture on them, I hate it. We put ceiling lights in the bedrooms and boy, do they accentuate the texture. The ridge sides facing the light source are bright white, the other side is a dark gray shadow. When the lights are on at night, the texture looks much thicker/deeper/rougher than it does during the day when the rooms are lit by the sunlight from the windows.
I'd put in a large fish tank. But that's just me.
Since you have that great picture molding why not hide a cord behind it? You could run a line of little lanterns along it.
The light would be softer and wouldn't highlight those walls you don't like.
Or if you want to cover the walls swag fabric from the molding.
As an alternative to track, I suggest the aforementioned cable light systems or a monorail system. You have sufficient ceiling height to support one of these choices. The monorail systems also can support attractive pendants. Depending on your budget, you can get some nice crystal pendants that can help bridge the gap between the very modern cable/monorail systems and the edwardian architecture. You can check out some example systems at City Lights or Lamps Plus (or the URL)
To keep the light from being harsh -- the common halogen track lighting systems are usually directional light -- you might want to check out lights that have a globe-style diffuser on them. It'll soften the light and make the wall texture less cobwebby-looking.