Kitchen Lighting

When choosing and designing your Kitchen Lighting try to have a flexible approach so that you can reflect the many different uses that this living area will demand. Kitchen Lighting works best when it can adapt throughout its working day, from bright overall light in the daylight hours especially in darker hard to light kitchens, to a children’s homework and activity area in the late afternoon and early evenings through to a low level more intimate light for dinner dinning requirements.

If you have a centre island in your kitchen try and light it from above with ceiling downlights or maybe some swish suspended pendants ensuring that you will be able to see to work and therefore fully utilize your island space. Think about putting this Island lighting on it’s own switch not part from the main perimeter lights to give your design extra flexibility.

To achieve the more intimate levels of light you may wish to use dimmer switches which means you will be able to adjust the overall brightness of your main lighting. You could also add low level LED Plinth lights and subtle under cabinet LED fittings that can be used to great effect. There are also many lighting control systems on the market that can be installed to give you ultimate control, our technical team will be able to give you more information on these types of systems.

Overall task lighting (Cooking, Cleaning etc.) is very important in any kitchen and should be given extra time and care in selection and design. Make sure that you choose fittings that are bright enough to give you as much shadow free light in work areas as possible. Under cabinet lights are ideal for giving extra light to work surfaces and work well in both fluorescent and LED versions.

Kitchen lights can make a big difference to the final results and style of your new kitchen. You can create a focal point with your lighting, an exciting row of stylish pendant lights over a breakfast bar or dining table. Single spotlights or multi bar fittings can be used to highlight objects within the kitchen. Display cupboards can be internally lit from above and below to give a dramatic show of your decorative items glassware and ceramics.

New style LED tapes are a great alternative for under cupboards as they can be installed to give one continuous strip of light over a long distance, ideal for today's modern sleek kitchen designs. LED Tape comes in many colours and is also available in an RGB colour changing version.

Kitchens with high ceiling give you an opportunity to be quite creative. You could also consider using the tops of wall cabinets with uplighters that will wash an area of light across the ceiling this could work especially well with a vaulted design taking full advantage of the beams and glass available. Pendant lights hung at low level can be used with great effect to give a sense of perspective, visually lowering a ceiling height

Table lamps should not be ignored for the Kitchen as they can add both a touch of luxury and style when used on cupboards, tables, dressers or as a stand alone light source with the shade offering an extra splash of colour to complement your overall design.

Our staff are on hand if you need any assistance with your selection so please do contact us if we can be of any assistance Telephone 0800 046 9041 Email [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Safety should always be given priority in the Kitchen environment and we recommend that you always seek advice from a qualified electrician before any installation. Further information and advice can be found at the NIC EIC Website