New Kitchen - help me with lighting please!

[FoofOfTheWalkingDead]

Our builder called on Wednesday to say they've had a last minute cancellation for Monday and want to start our kitchen. We've got our design finalised but I haven't worked out lighting yet and I need to let him know by tomorrow! There will be LED strip lighting underneath the wall cabinets but I'm not sure where to place the spots and how many to put in. It's a very small kitchen and will be all white units and worktops. I want it to be bright and airy but not like the Starship Enterprise. Can any of you good people critique my very hastily drawn lighting plan? I've included pics of the kitchen design for reference. There will be colour on the walls, not sure what yet, and the floors will be mid-dark grey granite-like Karndean (Karndean Corris if you're interested).

that looks like a LOT of lights for a small room.

I can't tell on the plan where you will have under-cupboard lights. but a key thing to to make sure that lights are above the worksurface. if you are standing at the sink or hob and the light is just behind your head, then your hands are in shadow which is really annoying. shift the lights to be just above the edge of the worksurface where needed.

That does seem like a lot! Our kitchen is approximately 7.3m x 5m narrowing to 3.6m, so I imagine a bit larger than yours. We have 15 recessed spots plus two pendants, which is bright enough for our requirements without being too dazzling 😉

The spotlights will be quite jarring if you have too many. Migraine city!

What is the square footage of the kitchen? You can work out how much light on average you should need then.

From internet:

The general consensus for selecting the number of downlights required is as follows: Step 1 – Measure the square footage of the room by multiplying its width by its depth. Step 2 – Multiply this square footage by 1.5 - that’ll give you the total wattage you should need to light it.

Another way is by measuring lumens required, which is supposed to be better than using watts. 70-80 lumens per square foot is what a kitchen generally should be aiming for. This is a good page for you:

www.pooky.com/blogs/inspiration/how-much-light-do-you-need-in-a-room

Good luck!

My kitchen is very small (5ft by 10) and has 4 spotlights at 500lm each (on a bar). That leaves it with only 40 lumen per square foot but it is still very bright. If I had a double sided galley I'd need more but that might help you plan?

Thank you for all the replies! That calculator is very useful. I will go back to the drawing board and take about 3/4 of those lights out. I've decided on a pendant over the sink. Now I just have to choose it.

Look at the John Cullen Lighting web site for kitchen ideas. Might be useful. They are top
Lighting designers.

Are you lighting a small kitchen or a runway at Heathrow?

We have lots of lights in our kitchen. They are not all on at the same time. So ours might look over provisioned but we have layers of light on different switches. Basically you need direct lighting above where you work. Then general lighting. Ours is on a central track but each light can be angled to where we want light. We also have mood lighting for the evening as we can eat in the kitchen too. We don’t use these lights when cooking. So three layers of lighting.

@BruceAndNosh

Are you lighting a small kitchen or a runway at Heathrow?

Cheeky!

The thing is that all those little spotlights give a sharp, pointy shadowy light. You actually get better and more diffused lighting from your larger lights. You can get LED ceiling strip lights like this in a strip or circle that would just light the whole room with fewer shadows. Then your under-unit lighting will give you a bit more task lighting on the worktops. Maybe add a directional light above the sink for when it's dark outside.

Spotlights can give a wide angle of light. Depends on the bulb used. Some have a wider angle than others and they are not all pointy sharp lights at all. Fewer with wider angled bulbs would be good.

Way too many downlights! Just put them where you need them.

Agree you want them to shine onto the worktop. If they are above or behind your head when you stand at the worktop you will get a shadow. If you can’t place them above the worktop due to joists or wall cupboards then fit angleable downlights so you can point them towards the worktop.

Personally I wouldn’t have a pendant above the sink. Too fussy in a small room. I would go for downlights there too.

If you want something more decorative how about two wall lights on the blank wall?

If it’s not too expensive I would strongly recommend having two different circuits eg undercabinet lights separate from overhead lights. There will be times you don’t want all the lights on. And definitely a dimmer! (Then need to make sure you choose dimmer compatible light fittings and bulbs).

Oh and IMO always choose warm white (2700k or at most 3000k). Cool white looks like a morgue.

We have four circuits. Under cabinet lights,central track lights, downlighters, and my “star” lights for nighttime twinkle.

All good advice, thank you! I've gone for this glass bubble shade above the sink and I'm hoping it's decorative but not too fussy. The brass fittings will go with the rest of the light fixtures in the house.
Speaking to the kitchen fitters today I'm going to keep the same number of downlights we've got currently but there will be LED strips all along the undersides of the wall cabinets. We're going with 3 circuits; 1 for downlights, 1 for under cabinet lights and one for the pendant. At the moment the downlights are a mishmash of cool and warm led bulbs so I will be going with all warm lighting.
Thank you all for talking me down from needing my own personal power station. I will post a finished pic here if my peri-menopausal brain can remember.