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In this video I want to explain a simple concept that can make a big difference
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to the look and feel of your basement. It's a little easier to show it than it
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is to describe it with words. So take a look at the drawing here and you'll see
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we've got some ventilation ducts hanging down from the ceiling. This is kind of a
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cross-section of things. There's a support beam, there's a couple of water
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pipes. Like I explained earlier in the course, it's handy if you need to
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enclose water pipes, put them in this box that hangs down to hide all
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these ugly things. You might as well combine it together. Now here you've got
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a partition wall. At this stage in the course you are deciding on a floor plan
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and part of that exercise involves deciding where partition walls are going
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to go. So if you have the option, if it makes sense, consider locating your
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partition wall, or one of them anyway, a sufficient distance from this boxed area
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so you include room for a light fixture, a fluorescent light fixture. And so we're
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looking at the end of the situation here and there would be fixture after fixture
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after fixture, whatever is required to cover that whole light valence area
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with fluorescent light tubes. So this does a number of handy things. First it
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allows you illumination that is different from the usual sorts of recessed lighting that will probably be in place in most of your basement. So it
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adds variety. And it also lets you create diffuse light. So the light shines
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down here. If you'll notice I've got this this layer in here that's a translucent
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cover. You can get these materials from building supply outlets and some
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of them are smooth and some of them are kind of bumpy and eggshell-y and their
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job is to diffuse light from fixtures like this. So there's a couple of
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anchor strips here and here that will allow you to fasten that that
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translucent cover. So it hides the fixtures, not that they really need too
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much hiding tucked up like this, but it does hide the fixtures and it causes the
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light to spread out more and make a more diffuse kind of reaction. You'll get
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even more diffusion if you paint the wall white or some light color because
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it's going to be reflective and it'll help to spread that light around too. But
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essentially this is a way of making the best of a not-so-great situation
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where you have this ceiling box coming down. You might as well make use of it as
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some sort of a light valence if it's convenient given the partition wall
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situation. Now the exact width of this space for the light fixture isn't
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crucial. It can be anything as long as it's big enough to accommodate the width of the fixture. But what I recommend is that you get your
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translucent plastic first. It tends to come in standard-ish kind of widths so
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if you can avoid cutting that stuff then that's good. So basically you would
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locate your partition wall to accommodate the translucent cover. The reason it's nice not to have to cut this is besides being just another operation
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it tends to be brittle and in my experience even if you're careful
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with a table saw you can get some cracked pieces. So why not sidestep the
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whole cutting operation and just size things around the width of cover
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material you can find. It makes a big difference. It gives you some
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variety from the recessed fixtures and it's just a slick way to go
