Lights! Camera! Cooking!

Everyone knows that lighting is central to a theater experience. Putting the spotlight on key characters in dramatic moments, illuminating the plot, creating mood.

Similarly, lighting design plays an important role in the day-to-day life of your kitchen. As such, lighting deserves serious consideration when you are planning/designing your new kitchen. First, look at the size of the kitchen, the amount of natural light available and the colors and textures you will use on walls, floors and cabinetry.

Then concentrate on expected use patterns. Who will be in the kitchen at certain times of the day and evening, and what they will be doing? What are the main work and activity zones? And what’s the best way to light each of them?

For a spacious, traditional or more ornate kitchen, accent lighting can highlight the intricate beauty of the room. Use wall or torchiere lamps, chandeliers and table lamps.  Since this kind of mood lighting will not be bright enough alone for key kitchen duties, be sure to include a brighter light source.

With a smaller kitchen or areas lacking natural light, the focus should be on overhead lighting that provides ample illumination. You can find a wide array of fixtures to brighten up a small space, including frosted glass globes, higher wattage bulbs and tube lights. 

Here are a few more strategies to ponder as you formulate your dream kitchen layout.  

Use cove lighting to highlight a decorative ceiling and provide overall, warm light. With cove lighting, fixtures are hidden in ledges, recesses or valences high on the wall or in the ceiling.

Under-cabinet lighting or task lighting is designed to provide adequate light for jobs that require you to read and see clearly. Choices here include strip fixtures, puck or disc lights and mini-tracks.

Light up your islands with pendant lights, which look good and work effectively. They can be put on a dimmer to provide low lighting when food prep is not underway.

Finally, think about ways you want to control lighting in the room. Lights can be wired so they operate separately and together. Dimmer switches are inexpensive, easy ways to provide lighting control. But, if you want a higher tech solution, lights can be connected to a motion detector, or put on timers.

The key to beautifully designed lighting that “fits” your new kitchen to a T is to determine what your kitchen lighting should achieve – where you want the drama of a chandelier or inside cabinet lighting, and where you need good looking, hard working lighting solutions that make cooking and entertaining a joy.