9 Pro Lighting Tips To Brighten Any Kitchen May 17, 2017 00:00
When it comes to the average time Americans spend performing household activities, the overwhelming majority is dedicated to food preparation and meal cleanup.
In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that we spend a whopping 25% to 37% of our daily housework time just in the kitchen alone.
It’s no wonder, then, that many people consider the décor of their kitchen to be instrumental in setting the personality for the rest of their home.
That’s why getting your kitchen lighting just right is not only crucial, it should be a priority for anyone looking to improve both the look and feel of their living space.
These 9 lighting tips will help ensure your kitchen is more than just functional—it’s stunning as well.
Don’t depend entirely on recessed lighting
Overdoing your kitchen’s recessed lighting is one of the biggest interior design mistakes you can make. Besides the overpowering glare and the discomforting effects of too much direct overhead light, a room strictly lit by recessed fixtures seems to lack personality.
That’s why you should take extra special care to include other lighting fixtures as well. Chandeliers, wall sconces, table lamps, and under-cabinet lighting are just a few examples of how you can vary it up.
Dimmers are key
An interior decorator’s best friend, the dimmer switch is incredibly important to each and every room’s lighting scheme and the kitchen’s no exception. Nothing alters the mood quite as dramatically as the level of lighting so be sure to seek out dimmable fixtures or bulbs that have the functionality built right in.
Doing so will let you transform your highly productive food factory into a softly lit dinner space.
Keep it bright where you need it, comfortable where you don’t
Keeping in line with the prior tip, don’t bring a disproportionate amount of light to your kitchen space. While it’s definitely advantageous to have bright lighting in the specific cooking areas, certain zones are meant for conversation and actually eating such as center islands.
For these spaces, try to tone down the lighting a bit to add some comfort and encourage friendly discussion.
Incorporate under-cabinet lighting into your kitchen
One of the best new ways to light your kitchen is by adding under-cabinet illumination.
Functioning as both a form of task lighting (for more accurate cooking) as well as accent lighting due to its visual appeal, you can make chopping vegetables on the counter easier than ever while also injecting a bit of style at the same time.
What’s more, such systems can be as simple as LED light strips or tap lights, making them highly accessible for just about anyone!
Don’t neglect the other types of lighting
While the kitchen might be the most task lighting-oriented room in the house, that’s no reason to forget about ambient and accent lighting entirely.
Ambient lighting does particularly well at filling in the dark corners of the kitchen that task lighting just isn’t concerned with.
And when it comes to giving a space a bit of style, there’s no better way of doing so than by highlighting architectural and stylistic features of the room with accent lighting.
Pendants galore
If you’ve got your pulse on the world of interior design, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the growing interest in and love for pendant lighting. These beautifully varied and highly versatile lighting elements are perfect for brightening up your kitchen space, especially over the center island.
What’s more, they come in a seemingly endless array of designs and colors so you’re guaranteed to find one that matches your design scheme perfectly.
Use home automation to quickly set the scene
Home automation isn’t just for your thermostat and your television anymore. In fact, adding a bit of smart technology into your lighting has become one of the most quickly growing home trends in the past decade. And incorporating it into your kitchen is both surprisingly simple and incredibly useful.
Beyond being able to tell such smart personal assistants like Amazon’s Alexa to brighten and lower your kitchen’s lights, all without touching a switch, you can also have customized lighting schemes on tap.
Want to brighten the space for an all-counter cooking extravaganza with one click? Or maybe you’d like to vary the lighting scheme just a bit to add some romance to the space. Either way, most smart bulbs will let you create your own personalized lighting scenes at the touch of a button.
Keep it balanced
And finally, try to keep your kitchen’s lighting balanced. The look and feel of a space’s lighting scheme mainly comes down to the interplay between the three types of lighting: task, ambient, and accent.
While each are important to have in every room, you don’t want one to overpower the other. Is your task lighting drawing the eye more than your accent lighting? Is the ambient light too low to really fill in the gaps produced by the other two?
It takes a bit of mix and matching but, with a bit of hard work, a sharp eye, and following the tips above, your kitchen is bound to become one heck of a gorgeous space.
How have you used lighting to bring your kitchen to life?
What’s your favorite kitchen lighting technique? Which ones have changed both the look and feel of your space? Let us know in the comment section below and get cookin’ with the Flux Smart product line!