Make an Impact With Kitchen Lights
Kitchen lighting makes a room feel even more welcoming, and there are fixtures designed to suit every style – it’s easy enough to make an impressionful statement when upgrading your kitchen!
Layer accent lights to showcase collections or decor, or install directional downlights for prep areas. Remember that choosing lighting that complements other fixtures in your home helps ensure an effortless experience throughout.
Ambient Lighting
Ambient lighting adds a soothing, ambient glow to any kitchen and supplemented natural lighting during the day. Pendant lights, ceiling mounted fixtures and recessed lights are popular choices for ambient lighting in kitchens.
Task lighting is an indispensable feature in kitchens for performing everyday tasks like cooking, chopping vegetables or cleaning utensils. Task lighting also reduces eye strain while increasing efficiency by improving visibility; LED strip lights, track lighting and puck lights are popular choices when it comes to kitchen task lighting.
Accent lighting draws the eye toward specific features in a kitchen, like glass-fronted cabinets or artwork hanging on walls, often combined with ambient and task lighting to achieve a balanced look. You can opt for bright or warm tones when choosing accent lighting; dimmers allow you to control brightness levels so your kitchen feels cozier while cool white lighting creates a sleek contemporary aesthetic.
Task Lighting
Kitchen task lighting provides focused light where it is most needed in the kitchen. It eliminates shadows cast by overhead cabinets and makes reading recipes, chopping veggies or cooking easier. Task lighting with dimmers lets you adjust brightness levels based on mood or activity levels.
There is an assortment of task lighting fixtures to choose from. LED strip and puck lights are easily installed under cabinetry and provide energy efficient illumination of your workspace. You have the option of plugging these directly into an outlet or hardwiring them depending on your preference.
Recessed ceiling lighting is another popular choice for kitchen task lighting, providing precise light where it is most needed and eliminating shadows on countertops or backsplashes. Mix traditional linear bulbs with LED tape lights or puck lights to achieve your desired aesthetic in this space.
Under-Cabinet Lighting
Under-cabinet lighting is an increasingly popular option in kitchen lighting, offering added brightness than can be provided by ceiling lights alone. Under-cabinet lights also create a special ambiance and enhance safety for homeowners who require more illumination than ceiling lamps can offer.
LED light bars and strips are an increasingly popular choice for under-cabinet lighting. Available in various lengths, they can be linked together end to end and provide multiple brightness levels; you can even select from various warm to white color temperatures with some models even being dimmable!
Under cabinet lighting options include xenon or halogen puck lights. These circular fixtures, known as pucks, can be mounted under cabinets or directly on the ceiling for overhead illumination, making them energy efficient while being dimmable to create different atmospheres. Hardwired puck lights may also be hardwired into your home but this requires professional installation – unlike battery-powered and plugin electric options which don’t show their cord, hardwired lighting may show its cord and may need an additional outlet in your cabinetry.
Pendant Lighting
Pendant lighting is an extremely versatile addition to kitchens, serving multiple purposes including general illumination, ambient ambiance, task illumination and accent illumination. They can also be hung cluster-wise over kitchen tables and islands.
Pendant lights emit various levels of illumination depending on their style and material composition. Larger fixtures can make a bold design statement or act as focal points, while smaller pendants tend to offer more subdued illumination that doesn’t draw as much attention.
Drum-shaped pendant lights (also referred to as cylinder lights) feature a cylindrical shade that may either be transparent or opaque, which dictates how much light is emitted downward and upward and has an impactful visual presence in a fixture.
When hanging multiple pendant lights over a table or island, it is recommended that they are spaced out equal to the diameter of one of their light fixtures. To determine this appropriately, measure the height in feet before multiplying it by two and three to calculate their spacing.
