Kitchen lighting

[GorgeousLadyofWrestling]

What lighting do you have in your kitchen? Ours is really old and just that long fluorescent strip light - that I think you’re not supposed to have anymore?

Pics? (Hopeful request )

Recessed LED downlighters on several circuits with dimmers plus 3 pendant lights over an island. Very controllable and low cost to run. Oh, also LED strip lights under the cabinets

Recessed spotlights - I think that’s v common (ie usual) now

It was cheap to do when replacing ceiling & gives an even light

If your ceiling is ok, maybe you can just replace with another fitting - depends on your budget I suppose

Lights under wall cupboard, suspended wire lights over the island, recessed lights for general lighting and “star” lights for night time!

We’ve only got recessed LED ones. Big mistake! They’re not even in the right places (you need them so every bit of worktop is illuminated!).

We’re going to add pendent over table and wall lights above windows (dimable).

bars of mini spots. you can point them where you want.

And concealed LED strips under the wall cabinets. might possibly add them inside deep cabinets where things get lost at the back.

I disapprove of holes in ceilings. They iluminate a pool of light below, like a torch. Not what you want to light a room. And holes in ceilings make maintenance or replacement more difficult, especially if a transformer has been shoved up there. Incidentally, the holes also breach the integrity of the ceiling as a barrier to noise, smoke and flame.

There is no need to have transformers and ELV lighting now that small LED lamps are available.

Is it open plan or a room of its own?
It's nice to have a bright central light for when you want the room fully well lit plus task lighting/wall cabinet lighting to kill shadows and light up the work areas. There are quite a few LED strip/circle fittings that will still give an even light but much better quality than the fluo tube.

If they are on separate circuits you can switch on just the spotlights for when you need dim light such as for walking through the room or raiding the fridge, or if it's part of a bigger open plan room.

However the thing now is to have recessed spotlights that point nowhere in particular and dangling pendants over the island whether you have one or not. If you are going to have ceiling spotlights make sure they are eyeball/adjustable ones.

Have several options so you can change depending on mood. We have the recessed spotlights on a dimmer switch, a really bright central chandelier, drop pendants over worktop area ( we sprayed inside jcb yellow, which gives a beautiful warm glow), a corner uplighter, plus a lamp on the shelf. Really wish we'd backlit the shelf and the radiators Oh and don't forget the candles and fairy lights at Christmas.

DB has an led coloured rope light on top of his wall cupboards which ooks great at night.

@PigletJohn

bars of mini spots. you can point them where you want.

And concealed LED strips under the wall cabinets. might possibly add them inside deep cabinets where things get lost at the back.

I disapprove of holes in ceilings. They iluminate a pool of light below, like a torch. Not what you want to light a room. And holes in ceilings make maintenance or replacement more difficult, especially if a transformer has been shoved up there. Incidentally, the holes also breach the integrity of the ceiling as a barrier to noise, smoke and flame.

There is no need to have transformers and ELV lighting now that small LED lamps are available.

Oh bugger. I've just had holes put in my kitchen ceiling oh well.

To answer the question, I've got an L shape of spotlights, to illuminate where the worktops are, and a pendant light over the table (when it's purchased)

We got rid( finally) of the two fluorescent lights and had the electrician put in eight spotlights. We have concealed lights under the wall cupboards on a different switch and one in my baking cupboard.

I love them and no longer have to vacuum the spider webs out of the strip lights.

Someone on a recent kitchen thread mentioned that had an led daylight panel which sounds very interesting.

Thanks everyone! We have an electrician coming today to do a number of small jobs, so might ask her about spotlights and under cabinet lighting. We live in a flat and our hallway ceiling is concrete but I’m not sure about the ceilings in other rooms.

I always thought spotlights created shadows but I guess the under cabinet lights help? The fluorescent strip light is so bright, it really lights up the whole room, that’s the one big benefit of it! I would love three pendants but although our kitchen is big for a flat (13x12ft) I think it’s not big enough and they would cause shadows?

I've just had my concrete flat totally rewired. They brought the ceiling of the whole flat down a few cm (so we had a new ceiling) in order to put new cables in the gap. We decided not to use spotlights in the flat as the ceiling would have needed to come down a few cms further as they need air around them. There are plenty of attractive flush ceiling lights that are close to the ceiling. Look at bathroom lights.

Low hanging pendants at nice on a separate circuit. But have something brighter and shadow-free for working though - you need to be able to see what you’re cooking/ chopping/ etc.