How to create ambient lighting in kitchen?

18 years ago

I have asked questions on this forum previously about my kitchen but still looking for ideas, specifically for the ambient lighting.

Background:

We are going to have an L-shape kitchen with no windows (open to family room and living room) so the actual kitchen area is naturally dark. DH doesn't want painted cabinets, so we are going with stained which is not helping either.

Still, a bright cheerful kitchen with lighting that imitates daylight (or an option do to that during the day) is extremely important to me. We had a dark kitchen previously and there is no way I want to repeat that same situation.

Recessed lights and undercabinet lights will provide the lighting for the horizontal surfaces but, unless we supplement with something else, our ceiling and our cabinets will be in the shade (especially with cabinets being stained wood, not white). We have a room where we are using only recessed lights and I hate the way the ceiling looks so dark when the lights are on.

Our ceilings are 8' high, cabinet moulding is going all the way to the ceiling because we need to hide ductwork and a vent pipe behind the molding. So no opportunity for lighting above cabinets.

I am looking for options to remedy this problem.

Unfortunately, I am not getting any help from my contractor or KD. The kitchen designer is saying the electrician should be able to figure it out, but our GC is also our electrician and therefore he can install the fixtures but he is not a lighting designer.

Any ideas would be greately appreciated

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Comments (3)

whidbey
18 years ago
A friend of mine is a kitchen designer and she did the following:

She has her cabinets going ALMOST all the way to the ceiling, being just about an inch or two away. She added soft lighting ABOVE the cabinets that looks just beautiful. She has under cabinet lighting as well as skylights above. Her kitchen is very well balanced with natural and ambiant lighting.

We have two skylights in our kitchen, under cabinet lighting, cans, and pendants over the island. We're still building so I don't know what the finished product will look like just yet, but I'm thinking it will be nicely balanced as well.

If you can swing it, skylights are great for bringing in that natural light.

Hope this helps. :)
annab6
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks whidbey, we can't have skylights because there is a second floor above the kitchen. And we need to hide the ductwork behind the mouldings so I don't think we can have an opening of any size between that and the ceiling. But I still would be interested to know what is the minimum gap that is needed for above cabinet lights just in case there is a way to do it. Do you know?
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modernhouse
18 years ago
I found information on the light to ceiling distance in a catalog on cove lighting from the company named Electrix. Look at the end of the catalog. You in general want 12 to 24 inches in distance between the light and the ceiling, otherwise you will end up with a narrow hot (bright) spot on the ceiling. Note that the cove fixture from this company are very efficient in distributing light due to the built-in reflectors. You can mount these lights closer to the ceiling than lights without reflectors. You should also have a very reflective ceiling (i.e. white) to bounce light into the room.

Here is a link that might be useful: Electrix catalog