Lighting is an aspect of design which perhaps isn’t always given the full attention it deserves when planning a new kitchen. Your lighting choices, however, play a highly important role when it comes to achieving the desired look & atmosphere in your new kitchen and in ensuring that your new space meets the practical demands of your daily life.
To achieve the perfect blend of design and functionality, you’ll want to ensure that you include a combination of lighting sources throughout your space. We’ve put together this short guide to give you some lighting ideas & inspiration for your own project…
Task Lighting
Task lighting is primarily bright, shadow-free, focused lighting that allows you to carry out tasks such as preparing food. A popular choice for task lighting is strip lights, usually situated under the cupboards positioned over main working areas. It is essential that under-cabinet strip lights are installed towards the front of the cupboard to illuminate the whole worksurface effectively, however, you may find that not all your most-used surfaces are located below cupboards or shelving. In this case, downlights, which are often used for ambient lighting, can be intelligently positioned in key areas and installed with dimmer switches to offer brighter lighting when working or more gentle, ambient light when hosting guests, for example.
Another alternative is the pendant light. While this style of lighting often makes for a wonderful statement feature, it can also serve a practical purpose, providing ample light for a work surface.
Accent Lighting
Designed to emphasise specific elements of your kitchen, accent lighting will add an extra dimension to a room. Accent lighting will help to highlight specific design features of your kitchen such as your island, seating areas or even display shelves or cupboards. Pendant lights are an increasingly popular choice with our customers here at Cambridge Kitchens & Bathrooms and, as a lighting option, they work fantastically when positioned over a kitchen island to create a real focal point in the room.
Strip lights can have an incredible impact when positioned within display cabinets, creating a seductive glow around your favourite vase or ornament. The subtle illumination provided by interior strip lights beautifully complements statement pendant lighting, creating a wonderful atmosphere in low light and showcasing individual features. Positioning strip lights around the base of your cabinets will create a floating illusion. Such a detail can really elevate the finish of a contemporary kitchen.
Ambient Lighting
Creating a homely atmosphere, ambient lighting softly illuminates the whole room, offering a more general source of light. Ambient lighting can often be dimmed to set a relaxed mood as the daylight fades. This style of warm lighting, set against on-trend darker kitchen units, can add real drama to a room. Recessed downlights are a popular option. Minimal in style, they are unobtrusive and pair well with striking accent pendant lights. Great for a modern kitchen, yet also subtle enough to work in a more traditional setting.
Alternatively, your ambient lighting can be a real showstopper, for example, these chandeliers (below) function similarly to accent lights when positioned above the island, but also provide a warm dispersed glow to illuminate the whole room.
Natural Lighting
When setting out to design your kitchen, areas of natural lighting must be carefully considered and should very much influence the layout of your space. As the light changes throughout the day, different parts of your kitchen will come into focus – positioning your lights to complement this can optimise the functionality of the room as well as being incredibly impactful visually.
If you’ve got a kitchen project which you’d like to discuss with us – or if you’ve got any questions about what you’ve just read – we’d absolutely love to hear from you. Our design experts at Cambridge Kitchens & Bathrooms would be delighted to find out more about your project and to discuss some ideas & designs for your space. You can contact us now by clicking here or by calling 01223 904 150.
