Wednesday, March 22, 2000

©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

Question: I recently purchased a three- bedroom house built in 1886 and have a big problem with not having enough natural light inside the house, except for the one window in the front and another window in the back. The house has a peaked room that is very high. I thought I could put in skylights: one in the kitchen, one in the dining room, one in the bathroom and one in a bedroom.

I have two questions: How do you think so many skylights would look in the overall design? And how do I keep the heat from escaping through the skylights during winter? I am about to start working on the remodeling and would like to prevent a big mistake.

Nora Montano San Francisco

Answer: Wanting more light in a house is a common need, and so is preventing heat loss.

Because warm air rises, adding skylights will create more opportunities for heat to find its way out. Typically, skylights, by the very nature of their primary function, are not insulated. Double-walled skylights exist, but they are expensive to purchase and install. And if they're not put in properly, they can trap moisture that can condense and create a whole set of other problems.

A well can be designed that adds a skylight at the roof while maintaining the level of the room's ceiling. White (milk-glass) plexi is used to keep the ceiling line visually continuous. Adding light fixtures, either fluorescent or incandescent, into the well allows for illumination at night. (My home has four of these, and they're wonderful.)

Now that we've solved the technical problem of skylights and heat loss by not putting the light directly at the roof level, the problem of aesthetics is a whole other question. Will the skylights be visible from the front of the house? A house as old as yours probably has its own charming personality and adding skylights visible from the front would be like attaching Ping-Pong balls to the front of a beautiful designer ball gown -- probably not the most pleasing effect and certainly not what any designer would have intended.

If it's not possible to find locations for the skylights that would be less visible and distracting, perhaps skylights are not the right solution for your lighting problem. There are dozens of clever and attractive ways to add lighting to any room, many of which can be considered in the design phase of a remodel. These include creating soffits with recessed lights that illuminate the space without being visible themselves. Recessed light cans, track lights or suspended lights that drop over work areas are other solutions to think about before construction begins.

Additional lighting can be installed after the remodel as well. For example, track lighting is relatively easy to install if there's a juncture box in the ceiling. Recessed "task" lights can be attached under cabinet spaces and wired into available sockets or switches.

I don't recommend installing skylights in the bedroom; generally, it's difficult to block the light for those who like darker rooms in the morning. However, well-placed floor lamps with three-way bulbs, table lamps on either side of the bed with strong bulbs and dimmers, and a good ceiling fixture on a dimmer should give sufficient light for any bedroom. Every light is adjustable so the right level of brightness can be created for any time of the day or evening.

 

Question: My living room and dining room are a large L shape, and both share a large cathedral ceiling. I have just repainted the walls a warm taupe color, replaced the baseboards, added molding around all the windows and painted all trim an antique white so there is a nice contrast between walls and trim. What about crown molding? What is recommended when dealing with highly angled cathedral ceilings? Do you continue the molding all the way up the peak? Can I forgo this difficult task and just use chair rail instead for added interest?

Marta Gillen Alamo

Answer: Cathedral ceilings present a challenge to any designer; they draw the eye upwards, away from all our hard work. I'm often asked how to minimize and soften their effect.?

Installing crown molding will only add to the problem. We want to keep the ceiling unobtrusive, keep the room in good proportion and maintain the balance between what's at eye level and what's above. You didn't mention the style of your home, so I'll simply say that adding chair molding instead of crown molding is a good idea if it's in keeping with the architectural style of the house. If it's a modern structure, the chair molding would be inconsistent with what the architect had in mind when the house was designed. If it's an earlier, period-style home, chair molding that is similar to the molding you used elsewhere would create a good line for the eye to follow, and keep the room in balance. You should probably paint it the same white as the other moldings.

Have you considered painting the ceiling a color other than white? Paint is the equivalent of makeup for the house and can do the same things it does for a woman's face: create illusions, emphasize positive features and hide flaws.

Using a color on the ceiling similar to what's on the walls will lower the ceiling visually and make it less daunting. The angles of the ceiling and walls will soften and the illusion that the ceiling reflects the walls will be accented. If you used paint that's shown on typical chip charts, find the taupe color you've used and step up one or two tones lighter on the same line. If it was a custom mixed color, go to the paint store and ask them to mix a lighter version of your color.

This should be an easier and more gratifying solution than crown molding would have been.

 

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