Kitchen lighting

Kitchen Lighting General

To reflect the wide range of functions that kitchens must fulfill, the design should be flexible. It should adapt from a bright, general light for the day as a supplement to daylight, to an intimate light in the evening. As with other rooms in your house, the first thing to consider is the general light. In the past, bare fluorescents were often chosen as they provided a bright, diffuse light, which created little shadow. However, as well as being unattractive, their light can be too harsh for evenings

Track lighting has often been used in kitchens but is usually positioned wrongly in the centre of the room, directing light at the kitchen worktops. If your kitchen were purely for show, this would be fine. But as soon as you work at a counter, your body is positioned between the light and the surface, which creates a shadow. The track therefore needs to be located much closer to the work surface, no more than 1m (40in) away from the cupboards. More than one track will usually be required to light a kitchen adequately, and the layout of the room may even call for a square arrangement of tracks. A small, galley kitchen is the only occasion where the central track method can be used successfully: it will automatically be close to the kitchen cupboards, and the light will shine over your head at the cupboard doors, with the reflected light bouncing off to light all the kitchen worktops. An alternative to track is a wire system. These cables appear almost invisible, and the individual bulbs can be adjusted along them to light as required.

Lighting in kitchens with low ceilings, spotlights and tracks may be unsightly, and too much heat may be emitted from the bulbs themselves. Fluorescent sources can be used, but you will achieve best effects by reflecting light off other surfaces. With a high ceiling, it may be possible to conceal a fluorescent lamp on top of the cupboards to create a successful general light reflecting off the ceiling. However, using fluorescents directly as downlights can instill the atmosphere of an industrial kitchen rather than a domestic one. Their other main disadvantage is their poor quality of light compared to tungsten halogen. Fluorescent has a flat quality, which gives an excellent working light, but does not bring out the best in surface finishes.

The choice of the colour of the fluorescent bulb is also important: a cool, white fluorescent light can appear too harsh while warmer lights can appear slightly 'dirty'. Fluorescent is difficult to dim and so at night can be too harsh. If you are certain you wish to use fluorescent and would like to be able to dim the lights, you will need to power them with high-frequency, dimmable ballasts which can be expensive. Tungsten halogen fittings can be used as uplights to provide the general light in a kitchen. They are easier to dim than fluorescent fittings, but far less energy-efficient. Whichever you use, you will almost certainly require some form of task highlights, possibly over a central island or under the kitchen cabinets.

The most effective and attractive kitchen technique is to use recessed downlights arranged regularly with wide beam lamps. As well as being much neater than a surface-mounted track and spotlights, they are also less susceptible to the gathering of grease, dust and dirt of a surface spotlight. The usual mistake, however, is to position the downlights in the centre of the room so that they focus on the floor rather than on the perimeters of the room. Without good task lighting, the perimeter work surfaces will be poorly lit and, because the units themselves are not lit, the walls will appear dark.

With the design of modern kitchen units using natural materials or painted decorative finishes, it is best to direct the light at the front of the cabinets and units to give reflected light to your work surfaces. This has the benefit not only of directing the light where it is required, but also making the kitchen appear brighter as all the vertical surfaces are lit. The neatest downlights are low-voltage. They have the added benefit of providing a daylight quality to your lighting, which can be very important in a basement, yet when dimmed will provide a much softer light.