The kitchen is the heart of the home. Kitchen lighting needs to be flexible to illuminate a variety of tasks, from reading the morning paper to cooking, eating and socialising. The kitchen is a room where you can really show off with lighting, and use a combination of different effects to produce stunning results.
As with other rooms in the house, no single light can perform all the functions of illumination at once. Layering light sources is essential, and a well thought-out lighting design should look great as well as be functional.
To ensure there is sufficient light within the kitchen for food preparation and cleaning, task lighting to work surfaces is essential. So key areas to focus light are the cooker and sink, with around 350lx being a good amount of light for these zones.
With the rising cost of electricity you should be looking to use some of the many fantastic energy efficient LED solutions available to reduce your bill. With wall mounted cabinets, low profile LED fittings mounted to the underside is an option. Offsetting the cabinets a short distance from the wall and hiding LED tape behind to create a halo is an excellent way to provide a wash of light across worktops, whilst minimising shadows. Backlit splash backs can also work well at providing task lighting to work surfaces. Incorporating RGB colour changing LED’s can be a fun way of adding colour and character to your kitchen.
If you have a dining area then lighting here is of particular importance. The dining table in most family homes has multiple uses. Lighting should be suitable for reading and doing homework, yet much lower and more intimate light levels are also required for dining and entertaining. Pendants above dining tables can provide a great feature and focal point within your space. Products that have a solid reflector create pools of light on a table. For a more ambient effect, glass pendants such as the Artemide Castore, are an effective way of getting light onto many room surfaces, and up onto the ceiling. Feature pendants vary massively in style and price. Find luminaires that you love, and that suit the décor and style of your kitchen. Bocchi, Artemide, Louis Poulsen, Light Years, Foscarini and Flos all have excellent options.
Oversized pendants are on trend at the moment and will instantly make a real impact. If your ceiling height is low, consider scale carefully. Choosing the right size and quantity is something the lighting design studio can help you with.
If you have artwork and photographs the walls, using spots to highlight these help to create focal points in the room. Draw attention to the things you love, because this will give your home personality.
Making sure that the fittings are on dimmable circuits will ensure that you can have the maximum output, but also a dimmer cosy level for all occasions.
General blanket lighting over an entire kitchen is not required when the task areas are adequately provided for. It is a common mistake to have a grid of down lights washing a room with a uniformed light level. A high level of light directed on to a floor is wasted, and would be needlessly using energy. To make a room appear ‘bright’, light should wash the walls and ceiling. Hiding lights inside an island or kicker boards at a low level can add interest. The soft halo gives a floating illusion to you cabinets. Care should be taken to ensure that LEDs are not reflected in the floor tiles. Lighting Design Studio can help you with this.
With multiple layers of light comes multiple lighting circuits. At the touch of a button, the fixtures in task areas will brighten while you prepare food and cook, or dim to the optimum ambience for dining and entertaining. Control systems allow you to easily adjust the level of light so you can increase your comfort level. Eliminating wall clutter from multiple light switches. They are great at lowering the amount of energy used and therefore reduce electricity bills.
If you have any queries on your home lighting then please do get in touch.
