Gameroom/finished basement - Lighting experts needed!

joeycuda

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 17, 2009
Messages
14,522
Reaction score
990
Location
Madison, Alabama
Gameroom/finished basement - Lighting experts needed!

My house has a large finished room in the basement, which is the gameroom. Well, it looks more like a storage unit now, but it has potential. There's carpet squares, but the walls are a flat gray, which looks more like primer, and the lighting is insufficient. I think that when the house was built, the lighting was 'just enough'.

There are 3 light switches/circuits:
1) Ceiling fan
2) Ceiling fan light fixture
3) Two 4 foot fluorescent fixtures

I want to add more lighting for the gameroom, but also done tastefully for if we even need to sell/move. I'm unsure if recessed lighting will one day look dated, but it seems to be very common and still in use, but probably more LED now?

Looking at the crappy illustrations below, the joists run top to bottom (across the room). This means that I can easily put a hole in the ceiling and wire a new fixture one side to the middle of the room and other side of the room back to the middle/current fixture.

So, currently there are two 4 foot fixtures and the single bulb fixture on the ceiling fan. The black stars are proposed added light locations.

lighting_layout_1_zpsljuew4kq.jpg


The most obvious, to me, way to go is
-Remove the 4 foot fluorescent fixtures
-Add can 5 feet from center on each side of where 4 foot was
-Put can where 4 foot was
-Upgrade light fixture on ceiling fan to 3 or 4 med base bulb fixture

lighting_layout_2_zpsiknimc3h.jpg


I'll have some cans 5' and some 7.5' from the walls. They'll be 5' and 8' apart. Not ideal if you were starting from scratch with no sheetrock, but as far as running wire down those joists, does this sound reasonable and like it will be enough lighting, gameroom or not?
 
If you want a BAD ASS game room I would just add more 4x2 fixtures and put black lights in them!! That way if you move later you just put white lights back into them and you would have a nice well lit room..Paint the walls blue & ceiling dark purple or black..Hope you consider this!!!
 
If you want a BAD ASS game room I would just add more 4x2 fixtures and put black lights in them!! That way if you move later you just put white lights back into them and you would have a nice well lit room..Paint the walls blue & ceiling dark purple or black..Hope you consider this!!!

Thanks for the advice, but I kinda hate the way that the fluorescent light looks. I also want it to look finished and to me, the canned lights look more like a living room than a basement. I think halogen flood lights or even LED replacements would provide cleaner looking light.

I want the room to be a gameroom, but have more of a nice living room/lounge style, so dark ceilings are out. It can look great though, I agree!
 
I guess I'm old school so I guess you want that living room look lol :-(

I want to be able to resell the house someday, if needed, and not repaint the ceiling and walls. I've got 2 little ones, so never know what the future is.

I'm thinking neutral wall color, nice white molding, canned lights, like this:

213686.jpg


but probably not as nice!
 
The lighting style you show in that photo is what I did in my basement / game room. I have two sets (either 6 or 8 lights per set). Each set on dimmer. Lights are round can type in ceiling and they are LED and fully dim able. Looks great. Lights were $30 each from Home Depot so they were not cheap but the effect for my game room is perfect. I had electrician do my game room.
 
Well make it nice..The rooms empty so do it nice and right! At least you can still hang cool posters,neon lights etc with that setup...
 
I always thought a basement arcade should be relatively dark and only illuminated by the games themselves. :001_ssuprised:
(When I need light, I have one of those bright pole halogen thing-a-ma-jigs to help working on the game or just lighting the room).

In any case, pot lights are "in" these days. Go for it.
 
Regular lamps: Wall mounted facing up (like in a theater).

Blacklight lamps: Canned with CFL blacklights... though you will need quite a bit of them to mimic the effect of a nice 48" BL lamp.
 
I have a couple of beer neons and can let just the games light room up, if I want it dark.

It's when I want to work on something that I need more light.

My question is mainly if that spacing will be sufficient. From what I read, there's no hard rule, and what may be enough light with wider spacing in a living room isn't what you want for task lighting, like a kitchen.
 
When I finished my basement a few years ago we went with recessed. I switched the standard BR30 bulbs to the BR30 LED bulbs from Philips. All are on a dimmer and the Philips are a bit brighter then a standard bulb. I dislike CFL's and suggest staying away from those. There are likely more integrated options now for other types of recessed LED that you could check out as well, but suggest doing some research on the different types. Recessed isn't going to go out of style so you shouldn't have a resale problem later on, unlike your current fluorescent.

My spacing is probably similar to your layout, but it won't have the same look as the photo. That photo has about twice as many bulbs as you would so the room is incredibly bright, like showroom bright.
 
So jealous....

Don't forget you can get a local printer to print you some awesome wall graphic vinyl to stick on your walls for full coverage or not.

Removable that is, so it won't take off your paint or leave adhesive residue on your walls!
 
LED downlights (cans) are still pricey. If you go cheap they burn out quick and are glare bombs. I always recommend buying cheap incandescent cans from home depot or lowes and then putting in LED bulbs. You can experiment with what color temp led bulb you like best.

In your above example of the cans around the ceiling fan, that's not too bad. But you will have uneven light around the perimeter of the room, maybe some wall sconces to even it out.
 
LED downlights (cans) are still pricey. If you go cheap they burn out quick and are glare bombs. I always recommend buying cheap incandescent cans from home depot or lowes and then putting in LED bulbs. You can experiment with what color temp led bulb you like best.

In your above example of the cans around the ceiling fan, that's not too bad. But you will have uneven light around the perimeter of the room, maybe some wall sconces to even it out.

I plan on going with standard 6" cans (already have one leftover from another project).

Thanks for the tips!
 
Good choice. I have all 6" cans with LEDs on dimmers. It's the way to go. I have them throughout my first floor and in my finished basement. The paint color I have in my basement is a slightly lighter version to the pic of the example you posted. I'll get a pic later.
 
This is my 99% finished game room in basement. Done similar, canned pot lights throughout, but looking to add removable black lights and black light carpet (easily undo it of we sell)

a4932a96a6beb1e411bd728e4380cb30.jpg

f876afd82515773c8df559713776ae41.jpg



Tim
 
@nagamitsu - that's a nice collection and setup! I found out that http://www.astrocarpetmills.com does runners of their Starz pattern cut to size. That's what I'll probably do so that I can leave sections of my wood styled ceramic tile exposed. My finished basement will be a full games room except for one corner for my office/gaming PC rig.
 
Thanks! That is the plan here, obtain a section of carpet that covers most of the floor in the room, and can be rolled up if needed. Cost of carpet and getting it to here in Canada is a problem! [emoji50]


Tim
 
Back
Top Bottom