Add a Luminous Ceiling to Brighten a Dark Room

One of the coolest ways to upgrade your home is to install a luminous ceiling. No, not painting a portrait of the Madonna (the religious one who kept her virginity throughout a couple of births not quite as famous as the one that brought forth her number one Son, not the singing one who was once famously a virgin, but even then was probably singing about something that was taken from her a decade before) with Baby Jesus fresco, but one of those ceilings with the lights behind the panels. The positive aspects of adding a luminous ceiling begins with the fact that your room becomes brighter. If you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, a luminous ceiling may even stop you from getting depressed. Adding a luminous ceiling in the kitchen is an ideal kind of deal for those who can’t see the food they are prepping.

Begin your luminous ceiling home DIY project by making a drawing of your room to scale. Scale in this case does not mean how much celebrities get paid to put up with Jay Leno’s stupid questions, but rather making an inch line for each foot of your ceiling. Be perfect in the measurements in your drawing and you’ll be less likely to screw up when it comes time to build the luminous ceiling for real.

A suspended ceiling will most likely be necessary for this DIY project because the luminous panels need to be placed anywhere from six to ten inches from the lighting fixture behind them. Panels may come in a variety of sizes, but you should look for 2×2 and 2×4 sizes for the easiest installation. Use fluorescent lighting tubes that are going to be spaced about two feet from each other. The best result will be obtained by abutting the lighting fixtures end to end and painting the ceiling up there above the fluorescent lamps starkly white. That white will provide a better reflection and cut down on dark spots on your luminous ceiling.

Since this is not a how-to article about how to put up a luminous ceiling, I won’t go into greater detail. This is just a suggestion and it is a good one for the DIY person who wants to make a dark room (such as a converted basement) brighter. You could also create different effects by using colored panels to provide the room a purplish hue when watching aging British actresses try their hand at playing Queen Elizabeth or a yellowish glow when playing strange video games.