Lighting is often overlooked when designing a kitchen, but is one of the most important elements to successful interior design. No matter the how high-quality the materials are, how harmonious the colour scheme is or how creative and well-executed your theme is, poor lighting will leave a kitchen feeling 'off'.
Bright, cold overhead lighting makes your kitchen feel clinical and unwelcoming. Poor placement will leave dark spots in places and cause 'pooling' of light in others, creating an uneven feel. Incorporating nothing but soft, low-level light might make for a relaxing atmosphere, but you'll find it harder to cook and clean!
On the other hand, intelligent lighting choices bring out the best in any kitchen, enhancing favourite features and statement design choices while minimising frustrations and deflecting attention from any unpolished elements. A well-lit kitchen is a kitchen that you'll enjoy spending time in - whether you're preparing a meal, entertaining guests or simply relaxing.
Before making any choices, it's important to understand how lighting works inside a home. No matter the room, there are three basic types of household lighting.
Also known as general lighting, ambient lighting is intended to create an even, uniform glow throughout a room - it's the type of light most associated with flipping on a lightswitch. Ambient lighting is versatile and can take many forms - from ceiling lamps, chandeliers and recessed ceiling lights, to wall sconces, valance lighting, track lighting and more.
You can think of ambient light as the foundation upon which your overall lighting scheme is built. It's not the most exciting element, but it's vital to get right if you want to achieve stunning results.
Task lighting is just what it sounds like - practical, focused, bright lights designed to help you do what you need to do. In a kitchen, it's used to illuminate countertops and other high-use areas of the room. Note that practical doesn't have to mean boring - strips of bright light and well-lit areas provide a fantastic contrast to softer parts of the kitchen and create pleasing variation in tone.
This atmospheric kitchen retains functionality and breaks up darker shades with bright LED strip lights over the sink and countertops.
There are both fixed and adjustable forms of task lighting. Countertop spotlights and pendant lights over a sink or dining table are the most common - shining a light on the areas that need it most. Directional track lighting is also popular, where individual lights on a ceiling fitting can be adjusted depending on the needs of the room.
Accent lighting is the most creative form of lighting, and the hardest to pull off effectively - remember that less is often more! The term immediately brings to mind lighting that provides atmosphere and sets the mood of a room, but there are many more ways to provide accents.
Good accent lighting will draw attention to artwork, decorations and statement design choices in your kitchen, while simultaneously deflecting attention away from elements which detract from the overall aesthetic of the room. Adjustable or dimmable lights allow you to change the tone of your kitchen instantly. You can even use lighting to create interesting visual effects and feature pieces all by itself.
This beautifully-lit modern kitchen uses downward-facing lights on the cabinets to illuminate their contents when open, and create a striking patterned effect when closed.
These aren't hard-and-fast categories - for example, a chandelier can provide ambient light over a dining table and also function as accent lighting to set the mood of the room, especially with a dimmer switch. Adjustable lighting can illuminate a countertop one minute and a favourite vase the next. Don't get too caught up in technical terms - simply consider how the room is used, what you'd like to draw attention to, what you'd like to deflect attention from and how you want your kitchen to feel. Achieve these and you'll naturally incorporate all the lighting you need.
Bigger is better. Recessed ceiling spotlights have become the lighting of choice for new kitchens, and for good reason - they're practical, customisable and reliable. However, they don't add much personality to a room! No matter the theme of your kitchen, a bold centrepiece light fitting can add a stunning final touch to your aesthetic. Chandeliers and chunky pendant lights are experiencing a major resurgence in popularity, so there's never been a better time to make lighting a focus of your kitchen, rather than an afterthought.
These eye-catching candle-effect chandeliers demand attention and really tie this charmingly rustic kitchen together.
Light up the countertops. Of all the changes you can make to the lighting in your kitchen, under-cabinet lights are often the cheapest and easiest to install. Battery-powered lights that stick to the underside of your cabinets are inexpensive and immediately help to light up vital preparation space. You can buy LED strip lights, or even lengths of light tape, to create a perfectly uniform area of lighting. If you ever find yourself squinting while preparing meals, or favouring a well-lit section of countertop over another, under-cabinet lighting will make a huge difference.
Switch it up. Dimmer switches and dimmable bulbs are a wonderful addition to any kitchen. The ability to quickly choose how much light comes into the room is an underrated one - once installed, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it. For the technophiles, 'smart bulbs' can even be controlled via an app on your phone.
As above, so below. Lighting isn't just for the ceiling - 'toekick' lights underneath base cabinets add an interesting visual layer to your kitchen. If you're feeling bold, experiment with colour variations to dramatically change the feel of the room in low light. And not only are these lights eye-catching, they're practical - no more stumbles or stubbed toes in the dark when grabbing a midnight snack!
Lighting underneath the central island in this bold, confident kitchen provides another element of visual interest.
Ask the experts. If you want to pull out all the stops and create a truly stunning kitchen, it's worth commissioning a specialist lighting designer - they can either work alongside architects and kitchen designers, or make modifications to an existing kitchen.
