Effective Kitchen Lighting Solutions and How to Use Them
Although your kitchen is primarily used for cooking, it often ends up being used as a space to entertain and gather with friends and family. To make space work for so many different purposes, you need the right lighting!
You’ll need a mixture of task lighting for when you’re cooking and ambient lighting for when you are entertaining. Often, when you’re decorating your kitchen, lighting is your last priority when it should actually be your first – here is everything that you need to know about effective kitchen lighting solutions.
Task Lighting
Task lighting in the kitchen needs to be bright and free of shadows. The best way to do this is by placing undercabinet lighting above your work surfaces. LED lighting works perfectly for this as the bulbs don’t get as hot as halogen lamps so there is no risk of the wood of the cabinets being damaged. Remember, the bulbs should be positioned towards the front of the cabinet to avoid only lighting the back area of the work surface.
Ambient Lighting
For the mood lighting in your kitchen, you will want your lighting to be controlled separately, so that you can create different levels of ambience. One way to do this is to use a dimmer switch to control your wall or ceiling lights. This means that you can have it bright when you’re using the space to cook or work and more ambient when you’re relaxing or entertaining. You could place pendant lighting above a dining table and have a lamp by a casual seating area to define different zones of the kitchen with lighting.
Feature Lighting
Feature and accent lighting is used to draw the eye to interesting points of the room. You could use built in spotlights, or a wall sconce if you have an interesting piece of artwork in your kitchen. LED plinth lights fit perfectly into a flat surface, making them perfect to add to a kitchen island for a subtle illumination that draws the eye, making the furniture seem like it is floating.
Lighting Ideas
- Don’t shy away from a statement chandelier. It can create a focal point in your kitchen!
- Add spotlights under your cabinet, they’ll add to the overall brightness of the room without being distracting.
- Hang your pendant lighting at different levels for an unusual and interesting look.
- You can buy lights that are combined with an extractor fan to clear steam whilst lighting the kitchen.
- Opt for a Colour Rendition Index (CRI) score of over 90 on your LED lights for a warm glow.
- Copper pendant lights are on-trend and make a statement.
The key thing to remember with kitchen lighting is that you shouldn’t rely on just one type! You will need different types to make the most of the different areas. If you’re renovating your kitchen or moving into a new property make sure to plan your lighting alongside the kitchen as it’s much easier to hide stray wires at this stage than it is when adding lights in later on!
