Stunning Kitchen Lighting Ideas For Your Home

Other than the ingredients for your favorite dish and your most expensive China, what’s in your kitchen?

A beautiful centerpiece on top of an expensive mahogany dining table, a curtain with cool colors to stop the sun from damaging your top-of-the-line microwave and fridge, and a cupboard filled with imported ceramics. These are the priorities of some of us in building our own kitchen. But just like water and perhaps, electricity, there is this one requirement for all types of kitchen to function perfectly – natural lighting.

According to Sara Antonin Interiors which is based in the UK, “lighting is one of the most overlooked but very important elements of interior designing.” Similar to the other spaces in your home, the balance of style and functionality should be how proper lighting works for your home . What good is a luxurious surrounding if it can’t be appreciated or if it stops you from carrying out the most basic tasks?

So, here are some kitchen lighting ideas for your own little foodie wonderland.

Connected, cute, and low-cost

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There is this metal track that can be used to shape graceful curves that is adjustable to the design and the size of your kitchen. Interior designers call it the monorail lighting or the track lighting system. The idea is to suspend the track on the ceiling while holding the actual light bulbs.

Aside from being stylish, there are several advantages why you should consider track lighting. First, it’s easy to install. Beginners are given easy-to-follow instructions on manuals upon purchase. For the fickle minded, these structures are also easy to adjust from your previous favorite position to your new idea. It’s highly customizable!

Second, it saves space while it beams the same amount of light since the lighting structures are in one central location. Third, it is cost-efficient. According to the US-based LED Lighting Blog, this kitchen lighting solution can give you electricity savings of up to 70-80%.Under the cabinet

Under the cabinet

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There’s a straightforward explanation why some of our friends put their lights under the cabinets. Depending on your position, your body and other structures often block the light beamed directly above us. You don’t want to work in dim shadows, right

Benefits of this modern kitchen lighting idea is easy to enumerate. It is unique, sophisticated, gives more space, simple to install, and energy and cost efficient.

Kitchen lighting fixtures under the cabinet is the best way to produce ambient lighting which promotes a romantic mood. The right colors in the right places at the right brightness is a make or break for you and your dinner date. Even when you’re alone, placing lights under the cabinet is still advantageous as it breathes the feeling of comfort, peace, and relaxation.

Light from a hollow opening

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Have you seen your neighbor’s kitchen with that light which comes from a hole in the ceiling, concentrating downwards just like a spotlight? This is what we call recessed lighting or simply, downlight.

For those who have small kitchen spaces, recessed lights create the illusion of space . Its soft and subtle glow blurs the boundaries of the room which makes the room larger than it actually is. Ceilings also look higher. If you have a painting or a family portrait in your kitchen that you want to emphasize, you can create a soft flow coming out from the sides of the object. The light shall invite you to take a look at the object. Since lights in this technique are hidden, your attention is not drawn into them.

Recessed wall and ceiling lights don’t have to be secured directly from wall studs. They float with very little support. This will make your housing structures lighter. Also, recessed lights are more efficient. Without the use of obtrusive light fixtures, recessed lights allow you to see what you’re doing more clearly. If you spend more time in the kitchen, like reading while waiting for your dish to simmer, this is the lighting technique for you.

Some bulbs are better

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Choosing better bulbs is also key. Depending on what your priorities are, here are tips for the type of bulbs that you should buy to brighten up your home or your condo.

General lighting – A standard reflector-type floodlight casts a beam of light of about 70 degrees light for a specific task – A spotlight confines the beam spread to about 20 degrees while a narrow spotlight bulb can narrow the beam spread to 12 degrees bright

Perfect for Recessed Lighting – A reflector bulb is perfect for the task since standard light bulbs can only provide a fraction of the former’s light

Flexibility

Photo courtesy of Bridgette Peron via Pinterest

So, what’s a switch for? You might be wondering why sophisticated houses maintain a lot of light switches for one room. They’re not there to confuse us.

Interior designers divide kitchen lighting design into three categories: General lighting for overall illumination, task lighting for specific lighting of a more details tasks, and accent lighting for setting the mood of glass-front cabinets and other structures in your kitchen. A dimmer switch can do all the magic as it gives you the choice of the amount of light you want. The secret is for you to install the highest wattage bulbs which you can adjust later on depending on the requirement of your activity.

Your kitchen may not have the most expensive things but with the right lighting technique, your house’s most functional space can get its most desired look. You should be able to identify the importance of proper kitchen lighting by now. So, let there be light!