Lighting a large open kitchen dining living area

[ChestyLaRue21]

Hi,

I’m hoping for suggestions on lighting a kitchen, dining and living area. It’s a large open plan area of approx 55 sq metres with an island.

I’m thinking 2 pendant lights over the island, one over dining and one over living area with some spots and under cabinet lighting in between.

I can’t seem to find lights that compliment each other without being too matchy matchy. Kitchen is a contemporary style so I can’t go with anything too classic but dislike the exposed, industrial style fittings.

I found my kitchen lights in Dunhelm. I went for coloured glass theme through out with a fancier shade for the living area. Have spotlights as well in the kitchen and dining area and counter lighting.

I've got pendants over the island and dimmable spot light in different zones and it works really well.

I have 3 pendants all the same! One over the table, one over the sofa area and one over one end of the island - the other and of the island has the extracted over it which has a light!

There are dimmable spotlights in the ceiling too!

It is really difficult! I was aiming for 2 over the island and then different lighting over the other 2 areas but the realisation that that the extractor needed to go in and the way the ceiling went I just resigned myself to ordering an extra one and having all the same!

We do also have wall lights next to the table too! It took ages to get the hang of which light switch controlled what! 🤣

I have a similar space.

We have recessed spotlights that can change direction.

We don't have any pendants partly because I don't like them, partly because I hit my head on them and partly because you can't move furniture that's underneath them.

We have them on separate circuits though. We can just have the kitchen or dining area or living area on so can zone lights

If it’s still possible, I strongly recommend putting in some lamp sockets that are wired to come on with the main light switches. We’ve found a few table and floor lamps have made a huge difference to our big open plan space. (we also have an island pendant, two wall lights, undercabinet lights and a bunch of spots), With just ceiling and wall lighting it felt a bit stark.

OP I'm going through this process for a large kitchen/diner.

I have the recessed spots in and actually did a great deal of planning by making a lighting plan.

I ended up with recessed lighting where the bulbs are higher into the fittings to stop glare.

I only put the spots where we need them, rather than stripping them everywhere, and also ensured they are dimmable.

I am really pleased with the result. I got a great deal of advice from reading everything by Sally Storey in regards to creating layers of light.

Now lockdown is over I am trying to find the pendants for the kitchen island and sitting areas.

If you jhave the space go with three pendents. Odd numbres (3 or 4) look better than even numbers (2 or 4) IMHO. Over the dining table a long pendant with multiple bulbs looks good. I got one from Original BTC. Complement the pendant lighting with under counter LED strips and perhaps more LED recessed into coving on the walls. I found the peeps at Ultraleds helpful with the LED stuff. Finish off with a couple of nice table lamps (permanently wired so they can be wall switched). Keep overhead lights dim / on dimmers with brighter task lighting for cooking (GU10s above the island).

Some great advice here, thanks to everyone who replied. The table and floor lamp ideas are something I hadn’t considered but will now for sure.