Little to no built-in home lighting

[TecHNooB]

My relatives just bought a new home and practically none of the rooms have built-in lighting. Every room in my house has built-in lighting. Is this normal for any of you?

 

[Ronstang]

Depends on the age of the house and where you are located. I prefer desk and table lamp lighting to overhead built in lighting unless it is recessed with dimmers.

 

[vi edit]

Yep, just depends on age. I had a house built in the late 70's and not a single room had overhead lighting in it originally. Almost every room had to be re-wired with a ceiling fan/overhead light.

Some of the outlets were keyed so at least you could turn the lamps one with a switch. The thing I hated about it the most was that lamps were magnets for crawlers/toddlers. I don't know how many times I had to steer kids away from those things. Plus the brighter ones are fire hazards if you have high output bulbs in them to get better brightness in the room.

 

[paperfist]

Not really dependent on the age, I think it's more of the style of the home. My sister bought a 15 year old house and it doesn't have 1 ceiling light. Very strange choice from the previous owner/builder on their country style home.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Not really dependent on the age, I think it's more of the style of the home. My sister bought a 15 year old house and it doesn't have 1 ceiling light. Very strange choice from the previous owner/builder on their country style home.

No ceiling fans either?

 

[Jeff7]

This building is at least 50 years old. The livingroom has no built-in lighting whatsoever, and the bedrooms have only one or two low-wattage lights, really just enough so that you don't walk into anything.

Most of the outlets are also 2-prongers. :\

 

[AMCRambler]

Depends on what the original owner speced the builder to do. My house was built in 1980 and has ceiling fans with lights in every room. My parents house built by the same builder in 1985 does not have ceiling lights in any of the bed rooms. They all have lamps keyed off wall switches.

 

[paperfist]

No ceiling fans either?

Nope, not one. It's very odd to see and seems like a time warp when you realize you have to turn on free standing lamps for light.

 

[apac]

My house was built in 1908 and has overhead lighting in only a few rooms. The rest I've added floor and table lamps. TBH, with high 10' ceilings like I have, the overhead lighting looks terrible. Everything feels much better in rooms where the light source is not high and in the center of the room.

 

[MotionMan]

We had to put in can lights in about half the rooms in our current house. There were no ceiling fans, either.

Now every bedroom has can lights and a ceiling fan.

MotionMan

 

[oogabooga]

It has been about 50/50 for place I have been if they have built in or not. My current place has built in lighting for hallways/living/dining room, but the rooms themselves do not. No room fans either, but there is central air.

 

[Wyndru]

My upstairs has no built in and downstairs is all built in/recessed.

 

[piasabird]

Try some wall lamps/Sconce?

To each their own.

Hang up some christmas lights from the ceiling for mood lighting.

 

[nageov3t]

my past two apartments had no overhead light in the living rooms. I made do with a couple high-wattage floor lamps. both buildings were 75-100 years old.

my current apartment also had no ceiling lights in one of the bedrooms, but it had a drop ceiling, so it was super easy to setup.