Lighting over sink

14 years ago

You GW'ers were so helpful on my drawer bank question that I want to throw out another one that is holding up finalizing my plan!!

Small galley kitchen with no windows in the cabinet area. Currently the kitchen has soffits and there is a cabinet over the sink (maybe an 18" high cabinet under the soffit). Drives me nuts and give me a closed in feeling.

Soffits are coming out this weekend and I am going wth 39" uppers with crown to the 8 ft ceiling. My first thought was to put no cabinet over the sink, then I could put a pendant or a recessed light over the sink.

But then I saw a photo (I think someone's kitchen on here) that spanned that area with a short (12 or 15") placed up with the top matching the 39" cabinets. I liked that for two reasons 1) I liked the continuous look with the crown 2) this kitchen is really small and I could use the extra cabinets for those things you use a couple times a year. Then I might add a floating shelf or two for extra storage or decorative items.

My question is - how could I light the sink area if I did that? I checked my current house and I have a window and no cabinet over my sink. I have a recessed light that works great to light the sink area and its location is further towards the wall then it would be if there was a cabinet there. Any creative ideas on how to light the sink area if you have cabinets or shelves above it? Is a recessed light centered 18" or so from the wall over the sink going to shed light too far behind the person working at the sink and have you working in the shadow?

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Comments (4)

thirdkitchenremodel
14 years ago
Can you put a light under the cabinet that is above the sink?
badgergal
14 years ago
In my previous kitchen we had a cabinet above the sink and actually had a smaller ( 4 inch, I think) recessed can in the cabinet with a hole cut in the bottom of the cabinet. We added it when we moved into the house because I could not stand not having a light above the sink. Of course you lose most of the storage space in the cabinet with the can in there but we were able to put a few things on each side. You would have the continuous look though that you want.
In this demo picture you can see the can in the exposed cabinet. Since it was added after the fact, we just had the electrician put a switch in the cabinet instead of tying it into the wall switch. So that switch is taking up a little of the space too on the right of the can. You would not need that in your cabinet.
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iroll_gw
14 years ago
I don't think a recessed ceiling light 18" out from the wall would be behind you: your sink base cabinet will be at least 24" deep, and then you'd be standing beyond that.

If there is no window, just a wall below the short cabinet, you could put a wall fixture just under the cabinet.
hags00
Original Author
14 years ago
iroll - I think you might be right about that. I was there today tearing out the soffits and it is a dark stormy day. It is a small about 9'x9' area where the cabinets are with one overhead "boob" light. I flipped it on and stood at the sink. It was definitely behind me and far from ideal but not awful. So if I had a recessed light just in front of the cabinet I think it would be good enough for me. I could always add a couple under counter lights under the cabinet or shelf if I put one up.