For me, the 2700K lighting throws off my cool blue/gray paint color, making it more tan/brownish.

I love the true coloring from the 3000K light, looks more like daylight than the warm creamy color of evening.

Get it?

Tough call. I am just switching mine over and am finding the LED's are throwing off a lot more light than my halogens. I have done the 3000 and really like it for the kitchen. I find the light is whiter, but not the blue-white that I really dislike. For other areas of the house I think I might prefer the 2700.

I did 2700 but found it too yellow so I switched to 5000k daylight and loved it.

It brightened up the room tremendously and it allowed my elderly parents to see things.

our pendants are warmer but all our recessed and pot lights are 5000k.

I just installed these in my kitchen and livingroom. I love the 3000k for the kitchen (nice bright white), but we went ahead and installed dimmers for both rooms. I don't think we will use the dimmer in the kitchen much, but we will definitely in the room we watch television in.

Costco has some Luxway LED J-Box potlights for $20 a piece, seems like a good deal. 3000K, 90 CRI, but only 480 lumens. Is there a general standard for how bright kitchen potlights should be? Are these underpowered?

2700 in the can lights, halogen in the pendants, and 3000 in the UCL and indirect fixtures on top of the cabinets. The combination seems to work well.

Thanks, what lights are those and how many lumens if you don't mind my asking? And also I've seen that pendant light a few times, what is it? :) Looks nice

It's the Cree cr6 800 lumen. 90 watt equivalent. Edison base. If you have the gu24 base, you can get the 1000 lumen version.

Pendant is restoration hardware

Something to keep in mind is the color temperature of the natural light your kitchen gets. If its north or east facing then the light coming in will be cooler, so a slightly cooler bulb will look better. Conversely, if it's south or west facing then the natural light will be warmer and a warmer bulb will tend to look better. That's a big factor in why paint reads differently in different rooms. Also, any bulb you get should have a color rendering index rating of at least 90 for the best color reading. No bulb will give perfect color rendering, but the higher the rating the more accurately colors in the room will be depicted. In my cans I went with 2700 because I have warm, western exposure. I used warm bulbs in my pendants too since they can be seen from the living room and dining room where I also used warmer bulbs and it would have looked odd and very apparently blue in comparison if I went with a cooler bulb.

eta: If your kitchen cabs or walls are painted cool colors, the same principle applies. Cool toned paints can read best with cool light, whereas warmer light can make them appear too yellow (as in Suzy's pic above), and vice versa. Basically it all depends on your specific kitchen and there's no one size fits all answer.

I love my 3000k -clean, white but not glaring or blue/cold at all -- and find 2700 too yellow in every room - even the ones with southern exposure and warmer décor. Also, I can see better with 3000k. My ceiling lights are all 800 lumens -- 480 would be too dim, so not a good buy IMO. I wouldn't go below 700 lumens for a ceiling can. I have the Sylvania brand. They were on sale at both Lowes and Menards last week for <$20 each -- don't know if they still are.

Thanks everyone, ok so 800 lumen 3000K, will keep looking

just order them online.

Steve FYI this is my 1000 lumens, 5000k pot light at 10 pm taken with a cell phone.

It brightens the entire kitchen.

Save yourself a lot of time if you haven't already install the cans, get the wafer lights. I have installed them throughout my home. The electricians love them because they are the thickness of the dry wall and no can is needed. They can be put anywhere! The price comes out to be about the same if you bought the can and the light.

yes...these wafer/pancake like units ARE great. we've recently installed the NDR brand of them in kitchen, family room, living room and dining room. keep in mind though, that you must stay with the brand choice as there is a male/female wire connection that doesn't match with other brands. certainly a non issue if your kelvin preferences are me within the brand.
other systems would allow you to change bulbs regardless of brand.
NDR offers 3000k, 4000k, 5000k..... available in 3", 4", 5" sizes (mix/match)

Which brand is good CRI in led recessed lights? Any suggestions?

Check out Soraa... they have LEDs with 95 CRI in a bunch of color temperatures