Kitchen Lighting

Not particularly, as there is too much activity in and out of the space to have the lights coming on and off intermittently. That said, motion sensing lighting can solve problems inside corner or deep kitchen units with no pull out features.

The number of lights depends on many factors but we typically work on 6W GU10 LEDs being spaced at 800mm – 1000mm centres depending upon the height of the ceiling. Lighting should be divided into categories of feature, mood and task.

LED lighting is much more efficient. You can run 9 LEDs for the price of 1 Halogen.

Pendant lighting works especially well where seating is fixed. It provides a nice opportunity to add a touch of the client’s personality, or to reinforce a design theme in the living space.

One of the great things about pendant lighting is that it brings the light down from the ceiling and puts it closer to your worktop, table or wherever you need it so apart from the aesthetics, it can be very useful for useful for task lighting.

Each space will require consideration (such as the height of the ceiling for example) but as a general rule, 6W GU10 LEDs being spaced at 800mm – 1000mm centres gives a clean wash of light and avoids ‘dark patches’ in the room.

We have a number of styles and designs for recessed lighting and the finish and colour are a matter of personal taste. They need to be fire and acoustically rated in a domestic situation.

Task lighting is generally understood as having the correct brightness to work by, so is often a focussed light or multiple lights providing the equivalent to around 100 Watts.

General or Ambient lighting is a light provided to illuminate a room, for example, it was common to find two 60 Watt bulbs in pendant fittings in a living room.

Accent lighting is often used to provide anything from a gentle glow, colour, to dramatic effects of shadow or highlighting textures.

The Kelvin temperature scale was the brainchild of Belfast-born British inventor and scientist William Thomson — also known as Lord Kelvin. It is one of the three best-known scales used to measure temperature and often used as a measure of the colour temperature of light sources.

Kelvin temperatures for commercial and residential lighting applications fall somewhere on a scale from 2000K to 6500K. The lower the light temperature rates on the Kelvin scale, the warmer and more red the light appears to the eye. The higher on the Kelvin scale a light rates, the ‘cooler’ and more blue the light appears.

2000K to 3000K – Warm white (red-orange to yellow-white).
3100K to 4500K – Cool/bright white (neutral-white to slight-blue tint).
4500K+ Moves towards a more “daylight” colour temperature (blue-white light that mimics daylight).

Neutral lighting actually works best in a kitchen as it’s in the middle of the kelvin scale and neither too red or blue.

Warm lighting is around 2700K – 3000K and although pleasing to the eye, can often effect the apparent colour of kitchen surfaces, especially white or pale gloss doors and worktops so careful consideration needs to be made here.

Cool lighting is generally above 5000K and can appear very blue. It can effect the look of food and drink, so is not best in task areas.

In summary then, the best choice is lighting that’s somewhere between 3000k and 4000K.