When is a Cornice a Lighting Fixture?

Remember that cornice that my husband and I wrote about that we created for our super long window?  Well, apparently we hadn’t thought ahead to far. When the cornice was up, we then wished we had thought of adding light to it!

We began the process of trying to find a small fixture that would work. We had a hard time finding a fluorescent fixture that was small enough not to protrude about the top of the cornice. There were a plethora of problems: should have recessed another inch; if you put the fixtures end to end, you had black spots between them; not exactly the look we were going for. Then we staggered the fixtures and that created hot spots and dimmer spots. Again, not the look we wanted. So far, we were not finding the solution for the perfect accent light we strived for.

When visiting a friend, we saw the soft glow of light we wanted at the top of their kitchen cabinets. They told us they had used rope light. Rope lighting would be an excellent solution because it is made up of LED (Light Emitting Diodes) lighting.

LED’s are all the rage now because they do not get hot like the ballast system for the fluorescent. They are less than an inch in height so they wouldn’t show over the top of the cornice. They use very little electricity and they last for almost forever. Hmmm, rope lighting easily comes in the length we have hanging on our wall over the windows. Now how to get electricity to the cornice…

Sometimes even we get lucky. There was an electrical switch box below our cornice end that turns on the outdoor flood lights. My husband (being the electrical engineer that he is) gave me a smile and went to work. After a lot of attempts, he was finally able to “fish” the electrical line up the wall and into the top of the cornice. He then hard wired the rope lighting.

In the evening when we want “mood” lighting, we can turn on the lighting over the cornice and we get this really cool glow. How do you create “mood” lighting in your home?