Lighting in the Kitchen

Too often, lighting is left as an afterthought when planning a kitchen design. Good lighting design can transform the way you use your kitchen, providing just the right levels of lighting for cooking, dining, relaxing, office work or homework. Lighting design should be considered at the early stages of a new kitchen, so what are the key things to think about?

Task Lighting

In the past, the most common method of designing kitchen lighting was to put lights in on a “grid” system, evenly spaced across the ceiling to give standard light levels throughout. However, this doesn’t take into account the fact that you might want brighter light over worksurfaces for chopping vegetables or preparing sauces, and more gentle lighting over the dining table. Design your kitchen layout first and work out where you’re putting the main worksurfaces, hob and dining space. Then you can start to design the lighting to fit the task. Any good kitchen designer should be able to help you with this task.

Under Cabinet Lighting

One of the best ways to implement the ideas of task lighting is to use under counter spot lights. These sit on the underside of your kitchen cabinets, and can be controlled with a switch to light up the area in which you are working. Modern LED bulbs are bright and effective, and don’t get too hot. Consider also installing a cooker hood over your hob. This will not only remove cooking smells from the kitchen, but they also usually come with an integrated light to illuminate what’s cooking.

Pendant Lighting

Another popular option is to have pendant lights over the dining space. If you have an island unit as part of your kitchen, some long pendant lights with large shades can help break up the space. These sorts of lights can also be used to create a warm and intimate atmosphere for family meals or evenings with friends, especially when fitted with a dimmer switch function. The downside to this style of lighting is that you need a reasonably high ceiling – too low and you’ll be banging your head off the lights every time you stand up.

Toekick Lights

This style of light goes around the base of your cabinets, and can help brighten up dark corners and illuminate the floor. LED rope lights are cheap to buy, widely available and very easy to install. A new innovation is LED tape, which just sticks into position and plugs into the nearest socket. If you get bored of these lights and want a change, it’s very easy to remove them too.

Installing Kitchen Lights

Taking on electrical work at home is never a good idea unless you have experience in electrics. Get an electrician on board to help with the project and turn your vision into reality. They will have the expertise to know what works, and can help suggest practical solutions for awkward areas. Make sure that any lights you choose for use close to the sink are designed to be used close to water.