Ceiling fan in a living room?

[Anonymous]

I wanted to put recessed lights in our living room (there is currently no overhead lighting). The room has two giant windows, so it gets lots of light, but the floor lamp just isn't cutting it at night and I think t would make the space look more finished. My husband doesn't like recessed lighting and wants to put a big ceiling fan with a light. We do frequently have the windows open and aren't really AC people unless it's super hot, and he thinks a fan would be lovely. Thoughts on a fan in the living room instead of recessed lighting? We're planning to live her until the kids move out in 15 years or so, so resale isnt a big concern.

[Anonymous]

How high are your ceilings? High enough so you won't feel claustrophobic with a fan?

we have a ceiling fan (and recessed lighting) in our family room. i love it. We're replacing the windows soon so we can actually open them (the old ones are sealed shut and don't have screens) for a cross breeze with the fan. If you are "windows open when it's nice out" people, I would go for the fan.

[Anonymous]

We have your husband's idea and love it. We're also noe AC people, but we do like the air moving. We don't mind the limited lighting in that room. We also have recessed lighting in our family room. Also fine, but that is below ground level ad air moving is not an issue.

[Anonymous]

The fan light isn't going to help with lighting at all. I'd do a fan without lights plus the recessed lighting or spots around the walls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fan light isn't going to help with lighting at all. I'd do a fan without lights plus the recessed lighting or spots around the walls.

Yes. Center overhead if the worst way to light a room, and few fans are bright enough anyway, but fans are great for comfort. You can put in a simple, classic fan plus sconces, recessed or additional table lighting.

[Anonymous]

We light our living room room with a ceiling fan light and have no complaints. It has lots of windows. We love the breeze.

[Anonymous]

I don't think a ceiling fan is appropriate in a living room. A family room, perhaps. But not a living room.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. We don't have a separate family room from the living room, so the "living room" I'm referring to is our room on the main floor with the couch, chairs, coffee table, bookshelves and some toys. We do have a basement playroom where more of the toys are. But in this "living room" that we would put the fan in, we sit for coffee with guests and that sort of thing, but it's also our family room in that we hang out in there in the evenings and my husband and I sit there to read the paper after we put the kids to bed. Does that change things?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fan light isn't going to help with lighting at all. I'd do a fan without lights plus the recessed lighting or spots around the walls.

Yes. Center overhead if the worst way to light a room, and few fans are bright enough anyway, but fans are great for comfort. You can put in a simple, classic fan plus sconces, recessed or additional table lighting.

Can you say more about the best ways to light a room? I'm actually not a huge fan of recessed lighting, because it seems to have this downwards cones of light rather than light all over. Curious about this. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I THINK A CEILING FAN WOULD BE GREAT FOR A LIVING ROOM-BUT MAKING SURE YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT CEILING FAN-MEANING MATCHING YOUR DECOR AND TO ME DURING SOMETHING DIFFERENT MAKES ITS BETTER

[Anonymous]

I THINK A CEILING FAN WOULD BE GREAT FOR A LIVING ROOM-BUT MAKING SURE YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT CEILING FAN-MEANING MATCHING YOUR DECOR AND TO ME DURING SOMETHING DIFFERENT MAKES ITS BETTER

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The fan light isn't going to help with lighting at all. I'd do a fan without lights plus the recessed lighting or spots around the walls.

+1 That's what we done and love it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think a ceiling fan is appropriate in a living room. A family room, perhaps. But not a living room.

Is it inappropriate to be comfortable in one's living room?

Our house has a ceiling fan in every bedroom, in the family room, and on the screened porch. And we're big air conditioning people, but I love ceiling fans and gently moving air. If we used our living room regularly, we'd have one there.

[Anonymous]

Depending on the room size, I'd do a center fan with 4-6 recessed lights around the room. We have just the recessed lights in our main level living room/family room and it's so nice and bright. Did it this summer and it makes a huge difference. It is. It a tiny job depending on the age of the house. It took about 2 days to do, including running electric from the basement with a new circuit, and patching and painting afterwards-plaster ceiling. For 6 lights it was about $1500 all in.

[Anonymous]

Pp- it's not a tiny job. That's what it should say.