What Light Fixtures Should I use in my Kitchen?
Our Kitchen Lighting Guide
A home’s heart undoubtedly is its kitchen. Be it a gathering of friends or a weeknight with your family, we all eventually wander and huddle up in the kitchen to engage in engrossing conversations.
Like a nutritiously balanced breakfast, it is important that your kitchen has just the right amount of light fixtures that’ll perk your mood up and leave you energized to tackle the day’s goals.
Our guide will teach you all there is to know about lighting arrangements in the modern, rustic or industrial kitchen.
Ambient Kitchen Lighting
This ought to be your primary light source, either complementing the natural light in your room or replacing its absence. We recommend that you arrange it in such a way that the light is cast in an even manner throughout the entire room. This can be done by combining different flush mounts, recessed lighting fixtures, pendant lights, and chandeliers.
The primary objective of an ambient lighting system is to ensure a consistent layer of light, which can be accomplished efficiently with the help of recessed lighting. For an efficient lighting system, you can deploy enclosed ceiling lighting fixtures along with a diffuser, which will illuminate the ceiling and the area directly underneath it. If you have a small kitchen, place the ceiling lighting fixture somewhere near the counter and sink, for an efficient task lighting arrangement. When you set up a recessed kitchen lighting arrangement in your kitchen, we recommend focusing on areas, which are not covered by your under cabinet or pendant lighting. Think of the places where you’re likely to place your feet, and ensure that it’s a well-lit zone.
People who have galley-style walkways or kitchen islands can set up a row of aptly spaced recessed lighting for complementing their room’s ambient lighting arrangement. In case the kitchen hugs your walls without anything placed between them, having a grid pattern can ensure that the illumination is spread out evenly across this space, thus enhancing the overall appeal of the place.
Kitchen Task Lighting
This is often the most overlooked but unsurprisingly, also the most critical lighting aspect of the kitchen. Since a kitchen is essentially a workspace, ensuring that it has an efficient lighting system in place will ensure safer conditions while you cook.
Depending on how your island was originally envisioned – as a hangout place and whether it contains an integrated workspace/cooktop, you should make lighting arrangements accordingly. If you have a bad shadow being cast on your kitchen, that could affect your knife and cooking skills, thus making the kitchen a dangerous place to work in.
Additionally, cabinet lighting is an oft-ignored aspect as well. Don’t mistake it for an optional add-on, even if what you are essentially designing is a minimalist kitchen. The installation of an undercabinet lighting system can help improve your kitchen’s environment and functionality. There are many fixtures and systems that you can add to your existing cabinets, including customized rail kits, which integrate power outlets and lighting systems to form an amazing backsplash. Common undercabinet lighting options also include:
Puck Lights: Oval and round, puck lights happen to be amazing mood lights that can be utilized for illuminating countertops, either as pools, spots, or scallops of light.
Strip Lights: Used for illuminating cabinet interiors, especially those of low cabinets, which don’t receive much ambient lighting. Counter spaces can also be fully illuminated with the help of LED strip lights.
If you don’t have any overhead cabinets or open shelving, don’t give up all hope. You can use smaller downlit pendants or directional sconces for creating an amazing design statement and task illumination.
Kitchen Accent Lighting
Here’s the fun part – you can use decorative fixtures here to fulfill the kitchen accent role. Although we are classifying accent lighting as a separate category here, kitchen accent lighting actually has a significant overlap with ambient lighting as well. It gives dimension and depth to the kitchen. Examples include glassware, fixtures placed within glass-front cabinets for illuminating china, and your collections. Adjustable, recessed low-voltage lighting fixtures can also be used for spotlighting art.
For peninsulas and islands, you can select fixtures, which scale properly to your workspace. You can leave the clearance on the work surface’s exposed side, thus ensuring you don’t accidentally hit your head while moving around. We recommend having at least 30 – 36 in between the fixture and surfaces. However, you can adjust this further, based on the fixture’s diameter or your height. You can also use a sconce or a pendant to provide handy accent lighting over your kitchen sink. It’s the best spot to display some jewelry as well. For a sconce or a pendant, a directional downlight can provide some extra task lighting. Don’t be worried about using styles or materials, which may stand out against the room’s overall setting – this creates an amazing juxtaposition that will only serve to enhance the beauty of the room. You don’t need to select every fixture from the exact same family of materials – bring in a little bit of everything for a grander effect.
Review The Floor Plan
We recommend that you get your layout finalized first before diving into lighting – especially appliance and cabinet placement. If you’ve got a formal, separate dining room and an eat-in kitchen, you can go easy on the kitchen lighting arrangements since the room will have ample light sources. You can utilize a decorative or slightly smaller lighting fixture for your eat-in dining room.
For an open floor plan where your kitchen joins the living and dining rooms, it can get grander if you use decorative lighting. That can help you anchor your chairs and tables and define the room’s dining space. Go for a bold design that can scale with your table size. However, make sure it can play well with the chandeliers, linear suspension lighting, and pendants in the space.
And that’s all! Whether your goal is a complete kitchen revamp or a simple update, having the right kitchen lighting layers will maximize the ambiance and utility of the room.