I have a question for the electrical folks on board — I am going to be mounting a a couple wall light fixtures / sconces above some shelves on either side of our living room fireplace wall. We overlooked having this done when doing our original electrical walkthrough with the builder last year so now I’m just gonna take it on.

Initially I was planning on taking the “easy route” and just tapping into power from the pre-exiting outlets down by the floor level and powering these lights separately … I’d use smart bulbs that are Wi-Fi enabled so I could easily turn them on / off, set dimming, and put a schedule on them (I understand that power to them would always be “on”, I’d just use the “smart” bulbs to control when they’re actually illuminated). This would be a relatively easy install and would work for what we need.

Buttt … now I’m wondering if I should take this next level and connect these sconces to each other and add a switch that would be places on one of the side walls. If I were to go this route it would certainly be more finished / professional. With this approach, I’m curious to hear what your take would be on how to do it (as in, the wiring setup / scheme and any other input or ideas). I can think of a couple different ways to do it but I’m just curious as to what others would say … I’m looking to keep it minimally invasive, obviously.

Photos for reference:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Copefree,

I am not an electrician but I do a lot of projects like this.

My first question is what space is above and below this.

Is the space above and below finished?

Attic, basement/crawl space?

Do you want them switched with the exiting lights or a separate switch.

I think the space above is literally another story because those look like floor joists running across the ceiling.

As a non-electrician looking at the pictures, I know exactly what I would do: I'd live with out the extra lights.

I'm sure there's code that says wires run vertically inside a wall have to be attached to the studs at certain points. I'm sure there's one about how to attach the light fixtures in the middle of the two studs and getting the wire to the box there. That's just not a project I'd do myself and looks like $500-$1,000 to pay an electrician and drywall guy.

Of course if my wife were wanting the lights, I'd pay the electrician and call the project today's dumb thing I'm doing because I'm married.

Check code…

Permanently lighting/powering a fixture with no interrupt may be against code.May depend on state.

Lights above the solid shelves? What will the lighting do other than illuminate the small area? Put some temporary battery lights in there to see if you will be getting the desired results.

It looks like you have a ceiling fan wired for but not installed? If so, they are usually wired with 3 wire so you could use one of the switch legs in the fan box for sconces and one for a ceiling fan that is either pull chain controlled or remote controlled that way you maintain control of light/fan individually still, or install fan without light. This would save a lot of drywall repairs.

Option two even less drywall repairs, add switch above left hand outlet, wire to sconce directly above new switch, then to second sconce. This puts switch in an inconvenient spot and may be an eye sore to some, but if the intention is to use WiFi bulbs the location doesn't matter.

With the TV above the fireplace , I don't think you are going to like the sconces in your line of sight . Like somebody suggested , put some temporary lighting there to see how it looks .

How much light do you want those thing to put out? My wife and I have a couple of "lanterns" that are LED and powered by batteries. They make for great mode lighting, without putting off much actual light. And the LED's run forever on the batteries. I know this for certain, because we have moved and the lanterns are still wrapped in bubble wrap and still powered on three weeks later. I have been to busy to remove the bubble wrap and switch them off.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Lights above the solid shelves? What will the lighting do other than illuminate the small area? Put some temporary battery lights in there to see if you will be getting the desired results.

Very good point. You may end up creating an undesirable shadow effect.

Can't add anything to the electrical part of this discussion, but I will chime in that home automation-style lighting controls fail for many use situations for human interface reasons. People are just too accustomed to flipping a switch. In my case, all efforts at HA over the years have failed due to the inability of certain family members (wife) to adapt to the concept, or more specifically, spend the time needed to learn how to use it. So, if you go the smart bulbs route, make sure that a wall switch can override the programming.

I have to agree that sconces above shelves will not only cast weird shadows but they won’t look right. I’d skip the hassle.

Thanks for all of the input / thoughts guys.

To answer the question, above and below are finished areas (upstairs and basement).

I considered originally just putting in those remote controlled / battery powered puck lights but the batteries only last like 100 hours. We probably won’t run the lights all too often but it’d be nice to not have to maintain batteries.

The sconces will make the built-in look like the built-in was added after the lights were hung as an afterthought.

I think you would be better off adding recessed "eyeball" style can lights in the ceiling in front of the shelves and tie them into the existing cans in the ceiling.

Why not just low-voltage LED strip lighting like something you would see under a kitchen cabinet??

The new stuff is very configurable, from brightness to color.

Surprised that you don’t have fire breaks in the wall stud cells. This would make it much easier to run wires, though, so good fortune there. I’m seeing LED strips under the two shelves, powered from the wall, just under each shelf, with small wires running through the wall from the outlets in the lower cabinets. I would put a small pushbutton switch fixture on each run, perhaps horizontally at the lower cabinet shelf. I would replace the cans in the ceiling with eyeball cans that might be directed a bit towards the contents on the top shelves. With LED lights, I would ensure they all were of the same color temperature.

My wife picked out these lights and I ordered them tonight.

… so now I’ll be figuring out my install strategy until they arrive. I’ll update when done.

your only going to light the top shelf my 2 cents
replace existing cans with dule direction cans

quote:

Originally posted by Copefree:
My wife picked out these lights and I ordered them tonight.

… so now I’ll be figuring out my install strategy until they arrive. I’ll update when done.

Before you do anything else, mock those up in position & use a flashlight or something to give finished appearance. Turn other lights off/on. Have the boss inspect it.
I think the idea will be different than the reality.

I don't think you are going to be happy with the end result. You'd be better off with small recess above the shelves and puck lights/LED strips under them.