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jennhuba

Lighting Size/location/hardware recommendations for large kitchen.

4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago

I'm in the middle of putting in a new kitchen/dining/beverage area and I'm looking for advice on lighting. I'm looking for architectural flangeless recessed lighting. A manufacturer told me that I need about 22,000 lumens to cover my ~16ft x 26ft area. ( I have 9 ft ceilings, cabinets will be a European style/shiny surface, another steel beam will separate the dining room from the living room.)

Placement wise, I think I need about 16 square LEDs ( 12 roughly 4 ft apart, centered in the walkways around the 6'x7' kitchen island and 4 in dining room/bev center area. Cooktop bottom cabinets are 30" deep, upper on cooktop wall is 15" deep. All other cabinets are 24" deep).

There will eventually be hanging lights above the island and dining room table.

I also have it wired for additional lights above the sink, cooktop and beverage center cabinets.

The bev center cabinets stick out 24" from the wall making it difficult to keep the ceiling lights in a row from the kitchen. They end of being close to the bev. cabinets that have their own lighting over them.

The dining room table will be in front of the window with it's own light. This may make fitting 4 cans between the table and bev center cabinets feel crowded. Being out of line with the kitchen lights may make it appear squeezed in. Maybe the dining room should have recessed strip lights and the kitchen should be square cans.

Any comments/suggestions/recommendation on specific lighting is appreciated.

Here are some pics...













Comments (4)

  • PRO
    4 years ago

    Sorry but there are big issues with the kitchen layout to start you never put seating in your work area and IMO this space is huge and really poorly designed The plan you posted and the 3D is not the same either .

  • 4 years ago

    Your kitchen designer should be providing a lighting plan. When you use a cabinet salesperson, you get sold things you do not need, in a bad design, and no lighting plan.


    Hire an actual kitchen designer here. You really really need one.

  • 4 years ago

    Showing a full plan including the Kitchen and Dining, which also shows the beverage center, would be needed to address some of your questions. Just hard to visualize from the pic where the Dining table and beverage center sit and how the backhouse entry plays with those.

    As far as lighting, I think you have only stated "centered over aisle walkways" with an additional light over the sink, range, and island. if so, there is much more counter space that will not be well lit, and the hood is in the way from the range ceiling light.

    Also, you have undercounter lighting for the kneespace cabinets, which provide functional light for them, but otherwise if they are on it will dominate your attention to those areas (bright, shiny surfaces below your eye level, to a recessed area for your knees/feet which is blocked haphazardly and creates messy shadows on the floor by the stool framing and such anyway). Note it is very hard to match ceiling recessed lighting to undercabinet lighting with color temp and saturation on the adjacent surfaces, so they always stand out as different. Since you have no upper cabinets to provide any undercabinet lighting, there is nothing to balance this undercounter accent lighting. However, lacking upper cabinets, if you were to accent light the range backsplash wall fully, have toekick accent lights, and likewise the island footspace lighting continues down the sides, then that could balance out the entire room (kind of like the 3-D drawing shows).

    As far as the cabinet layout, which is probably too late to change anyway, I'm not sure about the functionality of turning with wet dishes to place in a DW behind you. Nor what the angled end cabinets really provide aesthetically. Just a couple items amongst others where I'm sure other commenters would have more to say.

  • 4 years ago

    I mean how important is it to not have a trim? and why square? lighting should be pretty straight forward. who is your KD where is the electrical plan?

    I would be more concerned with the fact that if someone is sitting at the island, you cant open the fridge or walk past. let alone trying to get into that corner to access the cabinet there. add to that having the dishwasher open while at the sink having to block that path as well.