Why do people like can lights?

I honestly don't know, OP.

I just don't know why.

Pot lights?

Because twelve light fixtures dangling from the ceiling would look stoopid. Recessed lighting is a great modern addition in homes. Are you still using whale oil?

I don't - it looks too officey to me.

Canned lights are fine in certain areas of the house (i.e., kitchen, hallways). They shouldn't be used in most other rooms, particularly a dining room as in OPs picture.

R3, I do not lose my contact lenses hourly, so have no need to illuminate my residence with airport landing gear.

Table lamps, floor lamps and the occasional chandelier are sufficient.

They take up less space in a room. I used to like can lights but now I prefer spot lights.

If you use good recessed lights in a way that responds to the task of the space then they work well. Recessed lighting shouldn’t just be on a grid or placed randomly. Also if you make sure during specification that you choose something that responds to the materiality of the ceiling / other materials in the room it can be very successful, far more so than having decorative lighting everywhere. And of course make sure that you order fixtures that dim well with no flicker and are the correct color temp for residential use. You want your decorative lighting to stand out and look purposeful, good use of recessed lighting makes that feasible.

Your attitude shows a lack of understanding of lighting tbh. Do you loooooooove Tiffany lamps OP?

So in other words, R8, if you don't use can lights the way 99% of the the people who use can lights use can lights, they can be unobtrusive and effective.

Well, yes.

But most people use them the way the linked photo shows. In a sort of "the aristocratic and expensive-looking room at the end of 2001, only not in any way aristocratic or expensive-looking" way.

"Decorative lighting"? Tiffany lamps?? You are tilting at windmills, sirrah.

Because they don't like having to dust.

Funny, I'm in planning for a new home and was just looking at the flangeless Skye version of these.

[quote] Are you still using whale oil?

We should probably ask all DLers this, just for safety reasons.

I have them in the kitchen and bathroom because I want to control where the light falls.

These flangeless recessed lights from the link at r11 look like an albino’s rectum.

R9 what I’m saying is that you should have a professional organize which lights are chosen and how they’re installed and located if you want it done right. There’s both design and technical specification required. If you want to do it yourself and then complain that it’s not good then idk what to tell you. Your argument is a perfect example of how people undervalue those trades.

And (sigh) decorative lighting is the industry term for lighting that is not recessed or semi-recessed, or that that is applied after walls and ceilings are closed. 🙄

Because they can't afford and would even like "old fashioned" Barovier & Toso or Venini.

No overhead lighting for me. At my age, the dimmer the better.

Cat fights? I think they're deplorable! Young ladies should have respect for others- and themselves. What kind of upbringing do these girls have? Were they raised in a barn?

r15 is some kind of can light shop bottom.

She'd recommend can lights in the Sistine Chapel.

I prefer a tasteful halogen pendant, myself.

They are NOT called "Canned lights".

It's called 'recessed lighting and don't be so anal!

They have their place.

No R19 I’m an architect / lighting designer 😂 not that I think working retail is something to be looked down on, I was raised better than that x.

Too many of these and the result is the room or the flat begins to resemble a giant mothership at night. I notice it especially from the street view a well. I find it the exact opposite of warm and cosy.

R10 But recessed lighting pots are often spiderweb magnets.

[quote]I was raised better than that x.

But you weren't raised well enough, r23, to avoid writing run-on sentences?

What an idiotic post, OP. I wouldn't remember what kind of lighting my friends had. How sad you are.

R9 You seem somewhat "special."

They “like” them (and inappropriately over-use them) for the same reason plenty of people in the 70s “liked” faux-Tiffany chandeliers and avocado dishwashers - because that’s the mass-market standard of the moment, and most people have zero taste and less imagination.

I personally hate them, but I dislike overhead lighting in living rooms, dens and bedrooms in any form. Can lights are the owned property equivalent of a rented apartment boob-fixture; cheap, ugly and everywhere.

R29 Are you the OP?

[quote] After removing every single historic and/or architectural detail from an interior, the well-to-do frau will deck her halls with endless can lights for that warm and cozy surgical auditorium chamber atmosphere. …Why?

OP, are you getting the responses you wanted?

I think your ambiguous, sarcasm-filled original question has brought forth confused, garbled responses.

R31, I'm puzzled that there are so many defenders and I think our architect friend has misunderstood the brief.

Obviously recessed lighting can be used well.

It usually isn't.

Dear OP, your initial question seems to be asking about the use of recessed lighting as well as mocking fraus removing historic and/or architectural details.

1. I think recessed lighting is fine-- especially in smaller rooms.

2. I think the removing historic and/or architectural details is to be abhorred. I know of grand Victorian homes and civic buildings (similar to the pic below) which were stripped of elaborate decor, wallpaper and color in the 1960s and spray painted all-white but most of those are getting a sympathetic restoration over recent years.

Precisely, R31.