By Aussie Electrical Services     📞1300 395 860

Kitchen lighting ideas and types

Are you looking for kitchen lighting ideas and inspiration? The kitchen is the hub and heart of the home, and whether you’re building, renovating or just sprucing up a little bit, lighting will create the warmth and ambience you want, while illuminating those hard-to-see spots!

From kitchen pendant lights to ceiling kitchen lighting, in this article, we explore the three main types of kitchen lighting and offer some attractive and efficient solutions that your lighting specialist can install.

• Types of kitchen lighting – task, ambient and accent
• Kitchen island lighting
• Under kitchen cabinet lighting, and
• Colour temperature.

3 Types of kitchen lighting for your home

The three main types of kitchen lighting are ambient, task and accent lighting.

Ambient lighting

For general kitchen lighting that creates ambience and sets the mood, ambient lighting is used to illuminate the kitchen space and surrounding pathways. To achieve this effect, lights are set in different directions for more depth. This can be done with flush-mounted ceiling lights, recessed lights and downlights, track lighting with a wide beam angle, and commonly with island bench pendant lights.

Task lighting

Task lighting is the perfect kitchen lighting for those areas in your kitchen where it might be harder to see while you work. You can use task lighting to light up areas where you regularly prepare food, wash dishes or cook. Task lights will brighten the areas you work in, making it safer and easier when you’re using a knife or handling hot appliances.

Some popular types of task lighting are:

• Track lights with a narrow beam angle
• Kitchen island pendant lighting
• LED strip lights for shadowed areas
• Under kitchen cabinet lighting
• Recessed lighting/ downlights

Ask your electrical contractor to install task light solutions above your work counters and sinks.

Accent lighting

Accent lighting is used primarily to highlight decorative elements or features in your kitchen. For example, you may wish to illuminate artwork, a glass cabinet or ornamental pieces. Some homeowners opt to accentuate a vaulted ceiling with lighting.

You can also have accent lighting installed above cupboards, inside drawers or above the kitchen island bench. Options include:

• Chandeliers
• Wall sconces
• Strip lights
• Linear and slimline pendant lights
• Dimmable ceiling-mounted spotlighting

Keep in mind, when having accent lighting installed for your ornaments or artwork, the light should be brighter than the ambient lighting, without detracting from the contrast and colour of the pieces being displayed.

LED lighting offers a more appropriate way of highlighting images, especially for oil paintings, because it’s a broad-based light source. Halogen lights cause heat and fluorescent lights cause fading, so both these options are not a good choice.

Planning your kitchen lighting scheme

It’s important to have a plan in place when designing your kitchen for how you want your space to feel. This is one of the first steps you need to take when building or renovating. When considering your lighting scheme, kitchen pendants lights will go a long way in creating the right mood, and should not be an afterthought. Many homeowners choose to build their kitchen around the pendant lights to ensure they look just right.

Using a mood board will help you create the exact look and feel you want for your kitchen. You can add your cupboard style and colours, benchtops, tiles or other flooring, and of course your layers of lighting. This will help to make sure what you want to achieve will look good together and complement your colour scheme.

For the best effect, choose high-quality kitchen lighting fixtures with a high colour rendering index (CRI) to make your palette show their true colours.

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Kitchen lighting ideas

Discuss your kitchen lights plan with your electrical contractor for the best result. Here are a few tips for kitchen island bench lighting and lighting for under kitchen cabinets.

Kitchen island lighting

For modern kitchen island lighting, you can choose between island bench pendant lights or kitchen bar lighting. As this is primarily task lighting, it’s important to get the size right, while also choosing something that fits with your design ideas.

Pendant lights for kitchen bench

Wondering how many pendant lights over a kitchen bench looks best? This will all depend on the size of your kitchen benchtop, but it’s most common to have three pendant lights for a balanced look.

Kitchen island pendant lights come in a range of colours and styles. You can choose from classic black or white, or industrial-chic copper pendants, which work really well in a neutral colour scheme. Other common materials include rattan, fabric, porcelain enamel, wood or concrete pendants.

The size of your island bench pendant lights is an important decision. Slimline pendants are popular because they don’t block your views. Otherwise, larger pendants can be installed at a higher height so they don’t block views. Usually, the height of your pendants is adjustable. Glass kitchen island pendant lighting is perfect as it blends in seamlessly with the surrounds and adds a striking feature to the room.

Kitchen bar lighting

Kitchen bar lighting is stylish and practical and suits a kitchen lighting plan that includes track lights. Choose from aluminium or timber-finish linear pendant lights.

A linear pendant light can be suspended over your kitchen island or bench and they come in many different lengths to suit your home. You can also have them surface-mounted, which creates an architectural appeal. A hardwood timber finish provides the perfect natural look when hung over a stone benchtop.

Under kitchen cabinet lighting

Under kitchen cabinet lighting is another task lighting option that shouldn’t be overlooked. Oftentimes, prep work is done underneath shadowy cabinets that make it much harder to see.

Lighting for under kitchen cabinets solves this problem. Many people use LED strip lighting to illuminate the working space under cabinets, as they are easy to hide. The colour can be adjusted as well, which works for mood lighting, and they’re an easy installation process.

Getting the right kitchen lighting colour temperature

The colour of your light bulbs is another consideration that will affect the mood and look of your kitchen. It’s best to coordinate your bulb colour temperatures with the colour scheme in your kitchen.

Generally, cooler colour temperatures are fitted best with cooler hues of blue and grey, while warm colour temperature bulbs suit warm or earthy tones.

No matter what look you want to achieve, a blend of ambient, task and accent lighting will ensure your kitchen is stylish and functional.

For more information on kitchen lighting ideas, get in touch with Aussie Electrical Services. Established in 2009 and operating across Sydney, the team of licenced and qualified residential and commercial electricians can help you with all your kitchen wiring needs and offer lighting solutions that elevate the look and feel of your home. Aussie Electrical contractors offer you a lifetime guarantee on all work, fixed price quotations, and are available around the clock. Call 1300 395 860 to speak to them today, or visit their website to see their list of services.