A continuous lit handrail running down a smooth plaster wall beside a frameless glass guardrail.
← Leslie House

The Finishes

What is a Level 5 wall finish?

A Level 5 finish is the highest of the five drywall finish levels: the whole surface is skim-coated so that no joint, no fastener and no texture reads under raking light. It is specified when light will graze the wall rather than land on it. At Leslie House it meets exactly that — LED strips run at the base of the walls and behind the handrail, and the downlights are set without trim rings, so the light travels along the plaster instead of pointing at it. A flat wall that is not truly flat has nowhere to hide in that condition.

Why the plaster and the light are one decision

Wall finish levels run 0 to 5. Most rooms are finished at Level 4, which is sound under diffuse light and betrays every joint the moment light rakes across it. Level 5 adds a skim coat over the entire surface — not just the seams — so there is no change in porosity or plane for light to catch.

That is a specification you only pay for if you already know what the lighting is going to do. Here the lighting sits in the wall rather than on it: a strip at the base throwing light up the plaster, another behind the handrail, and ceiling downlights recessed with no trim ring to interrupt the plane. Every one of those puts light along the surface at a shallow angle, which is precisely the test a Level 5 finish is specified to pass.

The order of work matters as much as the specification. Baseboard lighting is not trim — it is a recess that has to exist in the wall before the wall is closed, wired before it is skimmed, and held straight over its whole run or the light reads as a wobble instead of a line.

Specification

Wall finish
Level 5 — full skim coat, no texture
Architectural lighting
LED at the base of the wall and behind the handrail
Downlights
Recessed without trim rings
Handrail
Continuous, lit along its length
Guardrail
Frameless glass on stainless standoffs
Control
Control4 — lighting on the same system as climate, audio-video and security

Level 5 and the lighting detail publish on the builder's attestation — he is the licensed general contractor who performed the work. Values marked as attested are his; the rest are visible in the photographs on this page. Nothing here is inferred.

The detail

Where the light meets the wall.

The reflected-ceiling and lighting plan makes the finish strategy explicit before construction: trimless downlights…
01The reflected-ceiling and lighting plan makes the finish strategy explicit before construction: trimless downlights, adjustable monopoints, recessed ground uplights and continuous linear light are located against the plan and keyed to fixture types. The finished photographs below show what those decisions do to the wall.
The LED baseboard: a continuous line of light at the base of the plaster, running the length of the hall and carrying…
02The LED baseboard: a continuous line of light at the base of the plaster, running the length of the hall and carrying past the elevator without a break.
The room under the skylight. Flat plaster on every wall, an epoxy floor poured through without a threshold, and the…
03The room under the skylight. Flat plaster on every wall, an epoxy floor poured through without a threshold, and the downlights set flush enough that the ceiling reads as one surface. Photograph by SOOP.
The same finish, running the length of the house to the glass. Nothing on these walls interrupts the plane — no…
04The same finish, running the length of the house to the glass. Nothing on these walls interrupts the plane — no skirting, no architrave, no trim ring. Photograph by SOOP.