LED lighting has made such a difference to how you can illuminate your home now and they give excellent light so you don't need the number of downlights as before. Strip lighting on stairs, for example, can look amazing and add wow to your home. Be guided by the experts above, or a good electrician should be able to give you practical advice. In some rooms one downlight can even be enough if you plan on having other feature lighting. Pendant lights for your bedroom will look great, but look at what wattage the lights you choose will take and whether you will need any other lights in the room. I have always been very minimalist in my home and try to keep to one light in each room for general access lighting and have alternative feature lighting for atmosphere. For example, I just have one LED downlight over my desk in my bedroom for when I'm working and a lamp each side of my bed for other times, and this is all I need. In my lounge room, I put two pendants, hung at different lengths in one corner of the room as a feature and I have two table lamps for when extra light is needed, but for watching TV or just generally entertaining and relaxing, the two pendants on their own are enough. Like you say, nothing is worse than over lighting a room, it totally loses any atmosphere. Your home theatre for example, could only need two downights for when you need a good light for cleaning and such, otherwise for general use, some wall sconces will give subtle lighting to the room. Have the two types of lights on separate switches naturally. One important thing I always suggest people be mindful of in work areas especially is to place lights so you don't work in your own shadow. One example is the kitchen sink or hotplates - put the light slightly to one side for better visibility.

Hi Diana. Is it possible you can post a photo to give us better idea of layout?

I think the other issue to consider is the iron ceiling might not be able to hold the light fitting due to weight and being thin too. I'm wondering if you can cut out square or rectangle shapes in the iron and fixing timber block painted silver where you will be able to cut out the perfect shape of the down light and the timber is fixed to the roof structure so the light fittings will be able to be installed safely??? The iron roof than is butted up to the timber blocks in the ceiling.

Hello Queenslander! There are lots of options for wall lights. Has the builder made allowance for wall lights in the cavity? Or has he only made allowance for a recessed or flushmount ceiling light? And now that it's all framed and lined, you are probably on a tight timeframe? Have a look at flush mount ceiling lights for a raked ceiling at Fat Shack Vintage. But get the correct dimensions first and you'll probably need it to gimbal on the batten, so that it can be mounted properly on the ceiling. Alternatively, if you are looking for something a little more modern for wall lights try the brand Nordlux, available from Milton Lighting and other places in Brisbane. But you will get about 70,000 hours out of a good LED downlight - that's about 8 years without ever turning it off! Lighting is tricky! Good luck.