How to Light a Kitchen Without Turning It Into an Operating Room

Kitchen lighting is one of those things homeowners notice most when it is wrong. Too dark and you are chopping onions in your own shadow. Too bright and the room starts to feel like somebody should be asking you to say ahhh.

Start With Layers

A good kitchen usually needs more than one kind of light. Ambient lighting handles the general room, task lighting helps you actually see what you are doing, and accent lighting adds depth and highlights the parts of the kitchen worth looking at.

Task Lighting Does the Real Work

Counters, sinks, ranges and islands all need useful light where your hands are working. Under-cabinet lighting is especially effective because it puts light on the countertop instead of behind your head. Placement matters just as much as brightness.

Pendant Lights Are Not Just Jewelry

Pendents over an island can be decorative, but they also need to provide useful light without blocking sightlines. Size, height and spacing should be decided in relation to the island and ceiling, not because a fixture looked great by itself in a showroom.

Recessed and Wafer Lights Need a Plan

Recessed fixtures can create clean, even illumination, especially in kitchens with lower ceilings. But more lights are not automatically better. Poor placement can still leave shadows, glare or a ceiling that looks like it lost a fight with a hole saw.

Dimmers Are Cheap Insurance

A kitchen needs different light at 7:00 in the morning than it does during dinner or when friends are standing around the island pretending they are not in the way. Dimmers make one lighting plan work for more than one situation.

The best kitchen lighting tends to disappear into the background. You notice the countertops, cabinetry, food and people — not the fact that somebody spent a lot of time figuring out where every fixture should go. That is usually a sign the lighting plan worked.

This article is for general information only. Electrical work and fixture selection should always be coordinated with the actual conditions of the home and qualified professionals.