It’s time to talk icehouse cove lighting. But first, join me in the garden to gather ingredients for dinner on the deck. It’s late summer, the height of harvest season. Crepuscular birdsong serenades sunset, peepers and croakers texture background sound, the temperature has started to settle, and the smell of fresh cut grass wafts up as our bare feet sink into the still warm lawn. Returning from the garden with a hod full of tomatoes, basil, arugula, and maybe a few fresh peaches for dessert, we approach Rosslyn’s icehouse.
Dusk has started to sprinkle her fairy dust about, and the window glow stalls my steps. It’s arresting. At first. Then spellbinding.
Daylight is yielding to gloaming. Soon we will resume our bountiful stroll back to the house where friends await us, eager to transform homegrown harvest into dinner. For a moment longer we linger to take in the sunken garden, the cobbled courtyard, the composition of historic buildings and hardscape and landscape and lighting, and… the window glow.
A dream long kindled but a plan postponed (“put on ice“) again and again, the icehouse rehabilitation glows like a trophy rewarding us for patience and perseverance. Rewarding Susan and me for rediscovering our dream during Covid quarantine and recommitting to it despite the somewhat impractical timing as we began to imagine our Rosslyn tenure drawing to a close. Rewarding everyone who worked on this project — from inception to conception to construction to completion — for the grit and artistic alchemy it takes to transform evanescent ideas into durable reality.
Looking at the two photographs above, it’s tempting to daydream six months backward or forward, away from today’s mid February snowstorm, toward the soul soothing embrace of a late August evening. But it’s 35° with more snow on the way. No harvest. No seductive sunken gardens. And the Punxsutawney Phil has put us on notice that we’d best pal up with patience since winter’s far from over.
So we’ll counter reverie with a recap of the “before phase” of the Rosslyn’s icehouse cover lighting.
Cove Lighting Recap
As often, I’m overdue for a followup on the icehouse cove lighting, specifically these three posts:
- “Ciphering on Icehouse Coving” (February 21, 2023)
- “Icehouse Coving Progress” (March 8, 2023)
- “Coving Complete” (June 8, 2023)
The photos below fall between the February post and the June post. For a detail that seems simple, subtle, and straightforward now that the icehouse is complete, it posed significant challenges at the time. (So often the case!) I won’t reiterate what I’ve covered in the previous posts, but I’ll include a couple images to help fill-in the gaps.
The next step will be to encase the 2x8s with trim (dimensional poplar) that will meet up with T&G nickel gap paneling on the ceiling and walls as shown above. Cove crown will be installed beneath the shelf, and an aluminum track will be installed in the corner of the shelf to secure LED strip lighting. (Source: Icehouse Coving Progress)
From ciphering to tweaking to installing trim and then wiring in the LED strip lighting, the cove lighting was slowly — sometimes sooo slowly — becoming a reality. To Brandon much thanks is due for sourcing the solution to my so-this-is-what-I-want concept.
aspectLED’s Flexible LED strip lights are a perfect solution for a wide variety of architectural and accent lighting applications including; cove lighting, under-cabinet lighting, back-lighting, pathway lighting and decorative lighting. Our Ultra Bright N-Series (narrow) flexible LED strip lights are made with wire leads on both ends of each 16.4′ reel and can be cut every 1″ (12VDC), allowing you to cut pieces to the exact length that you need. (Source: aspectLED)
Many thanks also to Brandon for participating actively and constructively in the design and fabrication tweaking phases, and for helping troubleshoot the carpentry to ensure a seamless integration. And, finally, thank you Brandon for installation perfection. From brainstorming to collaboration to execution, you contributed meaningfully to the entire electrical component of the icehouse rehab. And the cove lighting just be my favorite. Congratulations!
PS: Carley agrees 100%.
What do you think?