Kitchen lighting provides a fantastic opportunity to elevate your new space, to enhance its gorgeous looks as well as improving its functionality. Yet despite this, kitchen lighting is still sometimes just an afterthought. To really maximise your new kitchen design you should undoubtedly consider your lighting from the very beginning, incorporating it into your kitchen plan from the word go!
These days, kitchens aren’t just for cooking, they’re a place for friends and family to gather for all kinds of occasions, from casual lunches to wonderful celebrations, and carefully considered lighting gives the potential to set the perfect ambience for you and your family to enjoy. Lighting doesn’t just perform a crucial practical purpose, it can beautifully complement and accentuate the look of your kitchen, whether you choose a sleek modern design or something more understated and traditional.
Lighting Positioning
There’s much more to kitchen lighting than just ceiling lights! There is a range of places you can introduce lighting to enhance your kitchen design that you might not have thought of, and these positions are centred around three different lighting concepts. Ambient lighting or general lighting is the one we’re all familiar with, it’s the lighting that brightens the whole room and usually takes the form of ceiling lights. Task lighting, the clues in the name, it’s designed to illuminate work surfaces so that you can see clearly when preparing food. And finally, accent lighting is employed to highlight specific practical or design features in your space and its purpose is much more stylistic than task or ambient lighting.
Layering Your Lighting
When it comes to creating a balance of practicality and charming ambience it’s often best to opt for a variety of lighting styles. Establishing a layered effect will not only bring the widest selection of capabilities to your design but will also add depth, character and style to your space. When we begin planning your kitchen, we will discuss with you the variety of available locations. With the advice and support of the Mike Hughes Fitted Interiors team, we will choose lighting to bring your Kitchen to life any time of the day!
Ceiling Lights
This is the first place most of us think of when planning our kitchen lighting, and while it’s an obvious solution you might find it has more potential than first meets the eye. Classic LED downlights are a wonderfully subtle and practical choice whether you opt for a traditional or more modern kitchen design. Downlights provide ambient lighting to fill your whole kitchen with brightness, with the use of smart lighting or multiple light switches the lighting can be controlled to create a more tranquil mood later in the day. LED ceiling lights are particularly long lasting and their low energy usage is very cost effective within the home.
Pendant lights have become increasingly popular in recent years and it’s easy to see why. They are fantastically versatile, as well as providing a great source of ambient lighting, they can also highlight the key features of your kitchen such as statement islands or dining areas. Pendant shades come in a huge variety of designs that can wonderfully accentuate your kitchen style and add a real splash of personality.
Cabinet Lighting
This is where lighting can often be overlooked. Your cabinetry provides fantastic potential to introduce practical and stylish lighting which will beautifully offset your choice of ceiling lights. Undercabinet lighting will ensure you can use your worktops to safely prepare food, it can be especially helpful when hosting guests of an evening as you can get on with cooking without disrupting the atmosphere.
To make your stunning kitchen really glow, consider integrating lighting within your display shelving. This will show off your stylish kitchen design while emphasising your favourite ornaments for a characterful feel. Lighting is about so much more than just visibility!
Natural Light
Last but certainly not least is natural light. When we think about kitchen lighting it’s easy to get carried away over all the dazzling and dramatic effects we can create with artificial light, but what’s even more important is making sure your kitchen has enough natural brightness. Your kitchen designer can help you to plan your space around windows or skylights to help make the most of the daylight. If the natural light entering your room is limited, consider choosing a bright and clean colour scheme. Natural light can be the key to bringing an inviting and engaging positivity to your space.
From creating the perfect ambience to making sure you have enough brightness to cook safely, there are a variety of ways to use lighting in your kitchen and it’s not just about practicality. Carefully considered kitchen lighting will allow you to really make the most of your kitchen day and night and will beautifully emphasise your stunning new design. Find out more about how to create the perfect kitchen lighting for your home by speaking to the experts at Mike Hughes Fitted Interiors. You can call us on 01229 871122 or email [email protected].
