What to Know About Kitchen Lighting Layouts

Let’s chat about planning your lighting in your kitchen. If you’re considering a kitchen renovation, or any other home renovation for that matter, lighting is a key component. So here are some tips: 

Focus Light on Where You Need It

You need light in your kitchen. How much do you need? Where do you want it? In a kitchen, you want that task lighting on the countertop areas where you’ll be doing most of your work.

You also need some nice top lighting. In this kitchen renovation we just completed, for example, we have some pendants that hang over the island. This brings the lighting down a bit closer to the workspace, while also showcasing a beautiful fixture. 

Other lighting options to consider would be under-cabinet lighting or lighting within floating shelves, and puck lighting within cabinetry if you have glass fronts. 

Lay Out Your Pot Lights Wisely

In this kitchen renovation, the pot lights have been laid out in a grid. Take a look at the advantages of this in this space. This nice linear grid ties in with the rest of the attached living space to the kitchen. But also it gives great lighting from above. The lights generally cast light over the kitchen area. 

This kitchen, before the renovation, had this very large bulkhead with a strange configuration of pot lights within it. It didn’t provide great lighting to the area in general. In these before photos of the space, you’ll see what I mean about this bulkhead—how it sticks down, and how the lighting is inconsistent. 

So if you have your pot lights—or in this case, LED panel lights—consider whether the location they’re installed in might cause them to cast a shadow onto the work area. That gets a bit technical, but your renovator will be able to help you design and lay out your grid so that you have great task lighting to help light the space without distracting shadows. 

Consider Lighting Design and Aesthetics

Lighting doesn’t just have to be about function! It’s a great opportunity to bring design into your space. As I mentioned, the new pot lights are laid out in a symmetrical grid, which is very pleasing to the eye. In addition to that, there are these stand-out pendant lights in the center of the kitchen.

I really love these pendant lights. They provide ideal task lighting and a great ambiance to the space. They are also a really attractive fixture that ties in really well with the brass hardware package on these cabinets. Think about the design, about how it’s going to look—not only the function of how it’s going to light your space. 

So overall in this space, the result is this beautiful open concept kitchen, with a smart, linear lighting design, and really attractive fixtures in here to help round it all out. 

If you want a hand planning your kitchen renovation, please don’t hesitate to reach out. You can send us your questions at info@contactrenovations.ca. We’d love to help you plan your dream space!