Skimming artex and light fittings and coving question

I currently have artex in our house, i want to get it skimmed smooth and get coving put up all around. I also want to add downlighters. What is the best method/process i should follow? Get all the wiring in and then get the plasterer to skim then cut holes for lights?

Downstairs is not a problem for the coving, put upstairs we have full height door frames with glass windows at top. I am confused as to how i can use coving in the rooms/hallway around the frame? Has anyone got a solution for this? Thanks .....

we often advise customers to take the old ceiling down altogether (on ground floor ceilings) when dealing with downlights. this allows the sparky freedom of installation, and you get a trouble free ceiling in the bargain.

take ceiling down.

sparky fits wires, leaving them in the ceiling void.

fix new ceiling and skim.

paint ceiling.

sparky cuts holes, fishes wires and fits lamps.

Agree skim first then cut holes

noseall thanks for the response, sparky... that will be me..... hmmm whilst i agree with you i kind of want to do the job for least cost, and replacing the ceiling was one option, in fact i was just going to drop the ceiling by 1~2" with a 2x1 and put new plasterboard up, but this too proved costly, i just wanted to try and to the job cheaply i was going to do the following.

Drill holes in current ceiling and hook wires over joists to the correct positions for lights then fill holes/channels i formed to get wires between joists.

Then get plasterer in and skin, then cut holes and fish cable out?

TBH i am more concerned about upstairs with the full height door frames.

adrian_uk17F:
You can either just mitre up to them with a stop corner or .........take the architraves (fronts of door casings) off, cut some plasterboard to size of each window and stick / nail on frame/glass at slightly lower levels than walls surface - skim over them to match existing levels of walls, replace with new architraves around frames or if you've enough existing,use that,(but now at a lower level at the top) then... cove all the way around with no obstructons and no more glass.