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Kitchen
The kitchen in any home serves a purpose far greater than simply being a space to make meals. Often, it is the centre of a household where families come together. It is also a space where you entertain guests.
Kitchen lighting brings with it the opportunity to make this room truly exceptional. Kitchen lights can make the space perfectly functional for meal prep, as well as pleasant and atmospheric for entertaining.
Here, we offer a wide variety of kitchen light fixtures for you to choose from when planning your new kitchen lighting scheme.
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1 Watt LED Kitchen Plinth Lights – Build Your Kit
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5 Watt Hexagonal Surface Mounted LED Downlight
£36.35 (Excl. VAT £30.29) Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
5 Watt Adjustable Surface Mounted LED Downlight
£43.40 (Excl. VAT £36.17) Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
9 Watt Surface Mounted Anti Glare LED Downlight
£51.10 (Excl. VAT £42.58) Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
5 Watt Hanging LED Pendant Light
£56.08 (Excl. VAT £46.73) Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page -
6 Watt Globe LED Pendant Light
£83.41 (Excl. VAT £69.51) Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
Why Do You Need Good Lighting in the Kitchen?
In many homes, the kitchen is more than simply a place where meals are cooked. Many families consider it to be the heart of the home, and because of its multi-purpose space, having plenty of versatile lighting is important.
Quality kitchen lighting makes it easier to see while performing certain tasks. When you are working in a dark, shadowy room with knives and tripping hazards like splashed water, it can quickly become dangerous.
Clear visibility makes it safer for you to prepare meals, but also to have conversations with family and friends as you cook. You can layer your kitchen light fixtures so that you can have different lights turned on for different purposes.
One of them being creating mood lighting in the kitchen. As you hang around having snacks and chatting, turning on accent lighting alone can create a nice ambiance for the task.
Tips and Design Ideas for an Open Plan Kitchen Area
In many homes, open plan kitchens are the most popular. They blend together the kitchen and the other living spaces in the home seamlessly. With careful planning, you can ease the lighting from the rest of the home into the lighting style of the kitchen to create an effortless transition.
To begin, zone out your open plan kitchen by functionality. Zones include cooking and prep areas, dining zones, socialisation areas and transitional spaces. Once you know what zones need lit, you can begin layering the lighting to denote them.
Begin layering your LED kitchen lights with a main ambient layer for the foundation. Then, create those zones using task lights to separate the zones out without making them feel separate from the rest of the kitchen.
Pendant lights for kitchen island areas are another easy way to accomplish this. By hanging a statement pendant over the island, you can zone it out and create a focal point all at once. Depending on the brightness of this light, it can either be ambient or task lighting.
Create a zone for the sink area using LED spotlights kitchen ceiling fixtures. By positioning them to shine down right on the sink area, you can separate it out from the other spaces in the kitchen.
How to Plan Your Kitchen Lighting Scheme
To ensure that you are happy with the result of your new lighting design, it’s important to take a moment to plan out where the kitchen light fittings will go. To get a good idea, consider the way you use the kitchen.
For example, having plenty of lights over the kitchen island and counters where you prepare food is a must. Or, you may prefer to have well-lit cabinets that make it easier to find the items you’re looking for. Through these considerations, you can determine the lighting zones.
Lighting zones are best broken down into task, ambient and accent lighting. Task lights will go over sinks, stoves, and countertops, while ambient light often comes in the form of kitchen ceiling lights. Accent lighting can be kickplate lights along the base of cabinets or dim lighting overhead.
You should have a good idea of the dimensions of your kitchen as well. Higher ceilings can get away with kitchen pendant lighting. Lower ceilings in smaller kitchens will benefit from space-saving ceiling lamps for kitchen ceilings.
Once you know all of this information, you can sketch out where you intend to place the lights, and make notes about the sorts of styles and finishes you wish to include.
Current Trends for Kitchen Lights
Trends for kitchen lighting shift and change much like with any other kind of space. This year, there is a focus on two main trends: layered lighting schemes, and natural elements.
Layered kitchens have ambient, task and accent lighting all in one kitchen. Ambient light, usually in the form of lights in kitchen ceiling spaces, provides the main foundation of illumination. Task lighting provides more focused illumination and comes in forms like island pendant lights or under-cabinet lighting.
The final layer is accent and mood lighting. This type of light is generally used to set an atmosphere in the kitchen, or to show off a focal point. Kitchen wall lamp fixtures tend to work best for accent lighting.
The other trend of using natural materials helps bring the serenity of nature into the space. Biophilic designs bring elements of the outdoors indoors. Curved, organic shapes, earthy finishes and natural materials like bamboo, linen and rattan work here. Simple, neutral colours like brown, green and black kitchen lights are also a good choice.
Advice on How to Light a Kitchen Island
Kitchen island lighting is important to get right. The island is usually at the center of the kitchen, both literally and in terms of usage.
Pendant lighting for kitchen island spaces tends to be the most popular solution. Not only does it provide nice task lighting where you are preparing food, but it enhances the appearance of the kitchen as well.
Besides placing kitchen pendant lighting over island zones, there are other kinds of lights you may prefer to try there instead. For task lighting, you can also have kitchen lights in ceiling spaces instead of hanging from them.
For accent lighting, adding LED strips below the lip of the counter or kickplate lighting along the base can bring light from the island down to the floor.
Whichever lights you choose, be sure you are getting the placement and height right. Pendant lights over island spaces should hang about 70 to 90 centimeters above the island with spacing between them of 30 to 36 centimeters, for example.
How to Get Kitchen Task Lighting Right
Task lighting is arguably the most important light layer in the kitchen. Since it is such a task-heavy area, the kitchen needs crisp, bright lighting to easily see by.
To be sure you are adding proper task lighting to your space, take a moment to first identify the task zones in the kitchen. These areas tend to be:
- worktops, for prepping and plating food
- sinks for washing and rinsing plates and cutlery
- oven zones for cooking
- breakfast bars and kitchen islands for multipurpose use
Once you know the areas you want to add task lights to, you can begin thinking of the specific lights that you want to incorporate. This includes puck lights or LED strip lights under cabinets to shine on countertops below, or tilted kitchen spotlights over the sink.
You will also want to consider elements like beam angle, brightness and colour temperature. In prep zones, aim for 500 to 700 lumens per square feet; 400 to 600 lumens per square feet around sinks; and 300 to 400 lumens per square feet for general ambient lighting.
Narrower beam angles between 25 and 40 degrees provide better focused task lighting, while medium to wide beams are better for general coverage. Shoot for warm white light for relaxation and dining, and cooler light for enhancing focus and visibility.
How to Use Recessed Downlights in a Kitchen
Recessed downlights are an ultra modern addition to any kitchen. They sit flush in the ceiling, making them low profile and minimalist. For kitchens with low ceilings, these can make a world of difference.
Recessed kitchen downlights are versatile in the way they work for general ambient lighting and task lighting as well. It all comes down to their placement. When spaced across the entire kitchen, they can provide that ambient foundation. When positioned more purposefully over kitchen islands, they provide focused illumination.
What is the Best CCT for Kitchen Lighting?
CCT, or colour correlated temperature, is how the warmth or coolness of a light is indicated. Colour temperatures exist on a scale of Kelvin units ranging from 1,000K to 10,000K, with cooler temperatures toward the top.
For kitchen light fittings, the colour temperature you want will depend on the way you use the kitchen. Kitchens that primarily focus on productivity and cooking will benefit from cooler kitchen lamp ceiling lights.
Kitchens that prioritise socialising as much as practicality work better with warmer lights coming from pendant lamps for kitchen spaces.
You can also get a general idea of the best colour temperature for your kitchen based on the style of it. For example, modern kitchens work well with 4000K to 5000K temperature ranges, while traditional kitchens benefit from much warmer light between 2700K and 3000K.
Tips on Lighting a Galley Kitchen
Galley kitchens typically consist of two parallel sections of cabinets and counters separated by a narrow aisle. Most commonly, you will see these in smaller homes since they save space. Unfortunately, this also means they are more prone to shadows and have restricted natural light.
Galley kitchens present their own challenges due to the size restraints. The same hanging lights for kitchen areas that are larger might not work as well in those smaller kitchens with less room to move around.
In these cases it is recommended that, for your ambient layer, you choose recessed LED kitchen ceiling lights since they won’t protrude and get in the way. Your task lights should also come in the form of under cabinet lighting so you can take advantage of the design of the galley kitchen and make it work for you.
Kitchen wall lights also work well in galley kitchens, primarily as task lighting. That said, they can also be used as ambient light if the kitchen is small enough, or even accent lighting with lower lumen counts.
How to Integrate Wall Lights in a Kitchen Lighting Scheme
While hanging light fixtures for kitchen spaces are common, they are not the only option you have for lighting the room. Wall lights are an often overlooked but powerful addition to your kitchen.
Wall lights can serve multiple purposes in your kitchen:
- AMBIENT LIGHT. Wall lights generate soft illumination that can complement the ceiling fixtures and extend the light throughout the room
- TASK LIGHT. With thoughtfully placed wall lights, you can increase the amount of task lighting by countertops and near sinks.
- ACCENT LIGHT. Choosing wall lights with a grazing or wall washing effect can enhance the aesthetics of the room while also highlighting accent walls or unique architectural elements.
Like other kinds of lights, wall lights come in a number of different styles that work well in any kitchen. Choose swing-arm sconces and fluted glass with brass or antique finishes for traditional or shaker kitchens. Contemporary kitchens work better with minimalist uplighters and geometric shapes.