Flexibility, versatility with track lighting - Inside the Western Home

Sunset, Oct, 1990

Too often track lighting looks like an afterthought-a stretch of track and a handful of fixtures wired to a junction box meant for a single fixture.

The four installations Pictured here show ways to make track lighting look good with the architecture of a room. Each preserves track lighting's great virtue-versatility.

Fixtures can be placed at any point along a piece of track, then focused in any direction. And owners can change focus or fixtures at will.

To add interest to the tiny condominium kitchen above, four Coffers were cut into the ceiling and finished with gypsum board. Short lengths of track, cut to fit, operate off a single junction box.

A different type of recess (far right) was created by dropping the ceiling 4 1/2 inches to form a cove around all four sides of the room tops of walls already curved to meet ceiling). Mounted 18 inches from the walls, fixtures on 8-foot lengths of track can wash the walls softly or focus on specific objects.

Integrated into the design of a custom-made pot rack (above), a track stretches the length of a kitchen island. Running along beams bared in a remodel, the tracks below reduce the need for freestanding lamps.

Designs: Krista Everage, Los Angeles; Patrick Quigley, Torrance, California; Joseph Terrell, Los Angeles.