Need a lighting plan

15 years ago

(Cross posting this from the lighting forum in the hopes of getting more responses. Seems to have worked for Breezygirl :) )

Hello Lords of Lumens,

Cabinets are ordered, appliances are on their way, demo has begun!

Lights? Oh yeah lights, we need those too!

We've just assumed we'd have can lights and some pendants, but as GW has done to us with many other things, it took our original assumptions and turned them upside down, and we need some help.

We will definitely have UCLs, Pendants over the island (maybe sink too). Or maybe we shouldn't have pendants and have a chandelier?

But for the general lighting? Seems that florescent tubes are the most efficient (unfortunately, the least sexy to us). So we are thinking of some flush/semi flush mount ceiling lights for the general lighting.

So we need some help in figuring out how we determine how many we need, what kind (not style, just kind, like CFL. LED, or what), and where to place them.

Let me sum up.

o - Should we use any cans?

o - Pendants or chandelier over the island (it will have seating for five in the L shape)

o - how do we determine how many flush mount lights to use and where to place them?

Here's a basic layout of the new kitchen:

From Kitchen Design Plans

As usual here, I'm sure the answers to these questions will create more as well as begin to calm our nerves.

Thank you all.

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Comments (6)

brianadarnell
15 years ago
Slush, I think most here have had the best luck getting a lighting store to do a lighting layout for them. Thats what I did and so far, it seems like they thought of everything.

I think two pendants over your island would be great. I think you may just want to do a recessed light over the sink because its not going to line up correctly with the placement of the pendants over your island, and to me, that would be bothersome. Just my opinion :)
breezygirl
15 years ago
I'm not so sure how well it worked for me. So much conflicting advice. I'm no clearer now than when I posted the plan. :( I ended up getting a plan from two different lighting stores. It's amazing how different they each are. I still don't know what I'm going to do.

It's a tough balance between getting enough light and making your ceiling look like swiss cheese from too many cans.

I hate CFLs so there's no way I'm going there. But LEDs? Other options? I don't have the time or brain power to sort these types all out from each other.

I agree to the suggestion of not doing a pendant over the sink. How tall are you ceilings? My low ceilings are a major sticking point for me in the lighting plan.

Brianadarnell--Do you have your plan you could post? I'm really curious to see where (if any) your cans were placed by your lighting pro. One of mine placed them over the counters and another placed them in the aisle.
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brianadarnell
15 years ago
Breezy- I don't know where the plan went, but the cans are mounted and I can certainly post you a photo or two and a rough sketch. I'll take some photos today after work and post it for you later tonight (or tomorrow).

On the comment of swiss cheese- Hopefully it is possible to avoid the swiss cheese look. We are still under construction, so even though I think I avoided the swiss cheese look, no comments on the amount of light yet.
breezygirl
15 years ago
Briana--that would be great! I appreciate whatever you can pull together. Muchas gracias!
slush1422
Original Author
15 years ago
Sorry Breezy, I just meant you got a lot more responses on this side. Bummer you are still struggling with a lighting plan too. Our ceilings are 8 ft.

We'll take the advice and head to a lighting store to see what they say and keep you posted. We definitely agree with both of your suggestions to do a recessed light over the sink. I don't think we even thought about the lining up with the lighting from the island.
blfenton
15 years ago
I can only go by what our GC did for what's it worth. Put cans around the perimeter of the counter. Ours are situated equidistant between the edge of the upper cabinet and the counter so as to avoid shadows.

As to what to put on the island - is it a work surface or just a hanging out area. If its a work surface pay attention to the wattage of any lights you put there. You could put either 2 or 3 pendants there depending on the width of them.

It looks like you have about 7' of space from the bottom of the island to the area that goes to the living room. Is that area for anything specific? It is a rather large area to go unlit but lighting it would depend on what, if anything, will be there.