Track lighting

Many homes built before World War II had almost no fixed lighting. The result was that as night fell, rooms became as dim as Paula Abdul at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting. The reaction to this was built-in lighting solutions that were anything but. Here's what went wrong:Recess Time Is Over It's true that recessing light fixtures into the ceiling can flood a room with light, but is that what you want in, say, a bedroom? Furthermore, the end result of such an installation is a pockmarked ceiling that looks like a meeting room at a convention center.Tracks of My Tears Another response to darkened rooms has been track lighting, but it comes with its own set of problems: It creates a vaguely department-store vibe with its pseudo-high-tech fixtures, and those fixtures are often dangerously close to your head when dropped from many mid-century homes' seven-foot, six-inch ceilings. Variety Is the Spice of Light Over-reliance on either of these options compounds their problems. A well-lit room has multiple sources of illumination (ambient, accent and task). Using one for all three means nothing is done well.

Lighting: The right way
You don't need - and shouldn't want - all your lighting to come from the ceiling. Your room has three dimensions, so use the walls of your room as space for sconces while adding floor outlets so you can place lamps beside a loveseat or table. Combine these elements with switches and dimmers and you can create different moods at the twist of a knob - not just corner-bar dim or operating-room bright.The Payoff: 12 ceiling fixtures, installed: $1,800Three sconces, two floor outlets, installed: $900