Need help making kitchen brighter - x post

15 years ago

Hello all.

We are currently about 2 months from completing our new home and our very concerned that we don't have enough natural light during the day. We want our kitchen to be a very bright and well lit room during the day without the need for artificial lighting. We went with a golden wall color and we get plenty of light into the adjacent living room and dining room. The kitchen itself has 2 small windows and faces west.

Above the kitchen is a gameroom so that essentially rules out adding a sunlight. We could, potentially add a sun tunnel light but don't really have much space to run it down to the kitchen.

What other options can you guys think of? What about replacing our light bulbs? We have 10 recessed can lights and 2 light fixtures in the kitchen. I assume the builder has put in standard bulbs. Would LED or any other bulbs do a better job?

BTW, the pictures below were taked during a very sunny day and in real life the room is not that bright.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks

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Comments (13)

rhome410
15 years ago
I'm so excited to see your kitchen take shape. I loved your layout so much when you were working on it.

I love your thick countertops!

Anyway, I don't know if I'm much help, but I find that using halogens in my recessed cans gives a nice, bright, clean light...Like bright daylight. When we put recessed cans in our last house, on the advice of a guy at the lighting store, I put in halogen, incandescent, and fluorescent bulbs in different fixtures. Then I walked under each with an open book in my hands...This was during bright daylight hours, but our room faced north, so no direct sunlight. Anyway, the halogen was the only one that appreciably brightened the page and didn't change the color. I really felt like I could see the text more clearly under the halogen. We had (and have now in our new house) 6" fixtures, and put in 75 watt halogen floods. If you don't already have them, it is easy to add dimmers to the switches for the times you may not want the lights on full power. I've done it myself, and it only takes a few minutes.

Your kitchen is going to be gorgeous as well as so nicely functional.
drjay71
Original Author
15 years ago
rhome410

thanks for the kind words. you were one of many helpful posters during our planning phase.
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remodelfla
15 years ago
Sorry to go OT but I have to ask what your beautiful countertops are. I love the thick square edge ... I assume it's laminated.

I'm not lighting smart and defer to others on this one.
drjay71
Original Author
15 years ago
thanks,

they are from Arizona Tile and called Colonial Dream. they are 3cm thick with laminated square edges making them 6 cm in thickness. we were worried they would look too thick, but we like how they turned out.
erikanh
15 years ago
drjay, I remember you! Oh my, how wonderful to see your layout becoming a reality! It's going to be sooo gorgeous! I'm in love with your hood. Can you tell us more about your cabinets??

Nothing beats natural light, but I agree with rhome that halogen lighting seems to come closest with warm, bright lighting. And the dimmers are a must!

Can't wait to see more!

Erika
drjay71
Original Author
15 years ago
erikanh,

thanks!

the cabinets are clear alder ( i wanted knotty alder, but the wife won out in the end). they are stained with ebony sherwood stain from sherwin williams. they were designed by my wife and me. we wanted a clean lined but beefy look.
everyrose
15 years ago
Looks like its going to be a beautiful kitchen!

I had similar concerns and what I did was to change out two of the floodlight bulbs in the recessed cans to spotlight bulbs. I have eyeball trim on my recessed lights that allows me to point the light beams, perhaps you can change to that kind of trim? So then I adjusted the spots to shine on my island which is my main prep area. It made a big difference! The whole room seems brighter, I think because of the concentration of light in the center of the room in the main work area. And all it took was changing two light bulbs! the rest of my can lights have floodlight bulbs for general illumination.
ella_socal
15 years ago
I also recommend halogens. I just changed out my fluorescents and put in halogens. They give off a nicer light than the incandescents, too.
drjay71
Original Author
15 years ago
yes my builder suggested halofgens as well. i think our best option will be to optimize the canned lights with the best bulbs
janwad
15 years ago
The recessed fixtures that are installed are rated for a certain number of watts. Builders often 'cheap out' and install fixtures that can only take the heat of a 65 watt bulb of a specific type - parabolic, reflector, etc. I think halogen is hotter than most.

If you put in something hotter you can burn out the fixture and it is no fun replacing them.

Many fixtures let you raise or lower the bulb position by and inch or two. Lowering helps a lot.

I bought some dimmable compact flourscents at Costco that hang lower on their own and seem quite a bit brighter than the 50 & 65 watt incandescents.
quelyn
15 years ago
I'd love to see a better picture of your doors! Looks great!
rhome410
15 years ago
We've always put in fairly inexpensive recessed fixtures (standard builders' grade Junos), and have had no problems with the halogens in them...But they do say inside what bulbs they take and the 75 watt halogens fit that requirement.
drjay71
Original Author
15 years ago
do you guys have any more suggestions for bulbs to simulate natural light

Need help making kitchen brighter - x post

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