Kitchen Lighting Design

The ideal kitchen lighting design for your home should provide proper lighting for all the tasks you need to perform, in the areas you will be performing them.

Your design, therefore, should include a focus on each individual area in your kitchen.

First of all, decide on your style. There are so many options available today.

You can choose to create an old style country kitchen, an ultra modern space, French country, a Tuscan villa or something in between.

The options are endless, but decide basically on classic or modern, light metals or dark finishes. If you mix the finishes too much, the room will look jumbled.

It is often best to choose the central ceiling light fixture first. That will show you what style you should incorporate into your other lighting selections.

If your dining area is part of, or very open to the kitchen, make sure the light fixtures in each area coordinate. Brass in one area and nickel or chrome in the other is a very jarring and incomplete look as is very contemporary lighting in one area and antique in another.

Piccolo Pendant

When you are developing an interior lighting plan, stop and think of how you use the kitchen. Do you have an island that would benefit from overhead task lighting? How about under cabinet lighting to light the coffee prep area?

Task lighting over the stove and nearby food preparation areas is a must. You can do this with recessed lights, more under cabinet lighting, or if your stove is in an island or peninsula, track or pendant lighting works extremely well.

Does your family use the microwave often, to warm coffee, tea or snacks in the evening? You may want to incorporate small task lighting in that area as well. Conservation is the key in today's house. Why turn on the large overhead light each time you want to warm a cup of coffee?

Any kitchen with an island will benefit from task lighting. Check out the beautiful selection of mini pendants or even smaller chandeliers that would not only add the lighting you need, but add an amazing amount of style to your kitchen.

Five-Light Chandelier

Task lighting, if it is wired to turn on separately, allows you to use only what you need, a concept we need to consider more our home today. Track lights are a good way of combining style and task light. You can focus the lights individually just where you need them.

Here's a great spot for lighting that is both decorative and task oriented - light up your pot racks.

A pot rack hanging over a stove or kitchen island is the perfect spot to add a few mini canisters. They add a bit of drama to the area while providing great task light.

If you have a few dark corners in your kitchen good recessed canister light may be just the solution. They come in many styles and finishes these days and you can find a style to go with just about any decor.

Monterey Mosaic Bowl Pendant

Try lighting your work area with kitchen under cabinet lighting. A rope light strung under your upper kitchen cabinets would probably work nicely and probably provide the light you need without the necessity of always turning on the large overhead light.

With the variety of beautiful kitchen lighting products available now, the only real problem you will probably have is selecting just the style you want. Even that isn't the problem it once was.

Many lighting fixtures now come in sets, with a variety of fixtures available for kitchen ceiling lighting, track lighting, island lighting and pendants, all in the same style and finish. That makes it much easier to develop a workable kitchen lighting design.

Select a basic style, then decide which fixtures from that line work best where. Voila!