Kitchen Lighting Design Layout
Your kitchen is usually the most used room in your house. You prepare your meals there and have dinner with family and friends, and it may even be your personal haven. Lighting is most important before planning any other kitchen décor, and there are a few steps to follow when determining the lighting layout around your kitchen.
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Begin With General Lighting
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General Lighting
You will want to start your layout by deciding where your general lighting fixtures will be placed. Since they are the lights most commonly used in the kitchen, you will want to spread them around the ceiling so that light is provided to every area evenly. These lights are usually called high-hats or eyelets. Depending on the height of your ceiling and size of the kitchen, you may want to either install more of these lights or use brighter bulbs with a higher wattage to increase the light.
You want your general lighting to give coverage to every area of the kitchen without really needing additional lighting in each spot. However, it is always good to have some sort of additional light fixture in each area where you do multiple tasks in the kitchen.
Your Sink Is Next
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The sink is where you will need the most light since you will be cleaning dishes and most likely cutting and preparing food. Having two light sources is key, and you can do that in a number of ways. If your sink is located on an island in the center of your kitchen or you have additional countertop space around it, then you can think about standing lighting. This means finding two decorative lamps that follow your theme of décor in the kitchen and setting them on the countertop around the sink. Just make sure the lamp shades are large and you use bulbs with a larger number of watts to achieve the lighting necessary for that area.
If you do not have much space around your sink, you can install two lights directly above and have a switch that turns on only those two lights when you need them. If your clings are low, simply install two high-hats above the sink. If your ceilings are much higher, use drop-down lighting fixtures that hang over the sink, bringing the lighting source closer to your working area.
Under-Cabinet Lighting
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Under-Cabinet Lighting
Three basic fixtures to use underneath your cabinets are linear lighting, strip lighting and downlighting. Linear lighting uses fluorescent bulbs to give the brightest light and you choose where to place each one underneath the cabinets. Strip lighting is the best way to put one large horizontal lighting fixture underneath the cabinet. This will give off just enough light in the room when all other kitchen lights are off or when you are performing a task only in that area. Downlighting is also known as "puck" lighting. They are rounded fixtures you can place under your cabinets, and they have the ability to move and swivel around to spotlight a particular area. These are perfect for any number of tasks you are doing in that area, as well as accenting kitchen accessories you have on the countertops underneath the cabinets.
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