Throughout the pandemic I have worked in two spaces at home. Now that I have a permament space in what is a converted garage it is time to make it helpful.
Also during the pandemic I discovered the weekly videos of construction and home renovation work of Ashville which has inspired me. As a quick reminder I am in the camp of people who believe the flexibility of where you work is a good thing and we’re knee deep in the future of work but we’re too close to see where it is heading. More reason to turn a temp solution to a good one.
The room itself is 3.6m by 2.8m and has a window facing the neighbours wall (width enough for a wheelie bin). The space is both cold and suffers from poor lighting with just a single light bulb in the centre of the room.
Ever the one to use the minimum viable product approach I started as budget as I could. I recently purchased 2m of the cheapest LED stripes that Wilko sold to see if it may be a solution. The light from this £15 stripe LED was a massive improvement and proved the concept.
I then spent way too many pockets of time watching all kinds of youtube videos on home LED installs from both professionals and DI.Yers. In conclusion I really still didnt have much of a clue except that:
- the lights generate heat so fixing them to a proper “channel” will disipate the heat
- LED density should be 60 LEDs per m if possible
- shallow channels aren’t as good at diffusing the light (the more diffused the less you can see each individual LED
- Philips Hue lights seem to be the Rolls Royce of lights but I couldn’t justify the cost for what may end up backfiring
As luck would have it our in-house tech team had just finished installing a revamped event suite for our private hire. In that projet they used LEDs and I could actually understand what a channel was! It also gave me a supplier I could use as there are literally hundreds to choose from online.
Therefore I have just stumped up the best part of £250 (a lot I know!) to buy the channels which the lights will sit on and the fixing bits and bobs. You could skip everything and just use the stripe leds sticky tape to attach directly to the wall but I don’t like the idea of heat directly on my walls…. i may be overthinking on this!
I ordered the below on 30th May 2023 from Ultra LEDS and I’m hoping I will get the time during half term to install.
- 5 x 3 Metre Length Opal Diffuser ForBig Corner 3030 Channel (cut to length with a hacksaw)
- 12 x Set of 4 Mounting Brackets forBig Corner 30x30mm AluminiumChannel (4 brackets per metre is recommended)
- 5 x 3 Metre Length Opal Diffuser ForBig Corner 3030 Channel (the cover over the lights in opal so that it diffuses well)
- 4 x 30x30mm Corner Connector (to connect each length in the corner of the room)
- Purhased separetly Govee LED Lights 20M, Bluetooth Rope Lights with App Control, 64 Scenes and Music Sync LED Strip Light for Bedroom DIY Home Decoration, 2 Rolls of 10M
If this works I will take some photos and share as others may wish to fo similar. Let’s see what we can do together.