Our Lowes kitchen + need help w/ lighting ideas
We finally made the decision to redo our 25yr kitchen (with a fairly modest budget, ~10-12k)! We are getting our entire kitchen done by Lowes. We have previously used them to the flooring (Italian tile) in our ~1000sqft condo and they did a great job. They have been pretty accommodating in working with the cost of things; they seem to be flexible on everything but labor.
They have been working pretty quickly, kitchen was demo'd on July 8th, tiles installed on July 9, cabinets installed July 12-13, countertop guy came on the 14th to take measurements, and they should be delivered and installed within 12 working days.
Anyway, moving on! The old kitchen:
Particle board cabinets with no back (if you opened the cabinets you could see the wall behind!), formica countertops, HORRIBLE blind-reach corners, basically cheap everything. Ugly lights too. The floor used to be laminate but was replaced with ugly tiles done by an independent contractor. Basically ANYTHING is an improvement over this!
And the yet to be finished new kitchen:
Shenandoah Maple Spice cabinets, LG Viatera Cabo countertops (w/ 6in backsplash + full wall behind the stove - yet to be installed), super susan corners (the most exciting part in all honesty!), Italian tile in subway/brick pattern, stainless steel appliances: dishwasher, over-the-range microwave and sink + faucet yet to be installed.
The walls are Olympic Delta Clay which looks very brown online but shows up as a muted red in our kitchen.
Moving on to the main issue: we don't know what to do about lighting. My mom wants something warm/yellow-ish - I'm assuming this has more to do with lights than the actual setup - and does NOT want recessed lighting. We would LOVE pendant lighting, but our ceiling is only 8ft high! So we're looking at track lighting but not sure where to start. We definitely don't want anything too "industrial" looking and would prefer something more classy, if that makes sense. Not sure if we should stick w/ silver to match appliances or move to a dark brown/copper color for the lights. Any ideas? We have two lights, one center one and one smaller one above the sink.
Comments (12)
maybeiloveyou
12 years agoRelated Discussions
Kitchen Lighting - Help! (x-post w/ Lighting forum)
Comments (3)We just put in 4 inch recessed in our Family room and the bulbs that I found were 45 Watt or 40 watt halogen that burn at 40 but give off the light of a 75 watt bulb. Four inch might be a little small to give proper lighting in your kitchen. We are planning to use five inch in the kitchen per our contractor...See Morekitchen lighting mess... need help or ideas!!
Comments (9)Hi abundant - I had trouble with our kitchen lighting, too. While I am far from an expert on lighting, I will share with you what we did. My kitchen is about 11' x 12' with one large window. We had 9 recessed cans installed - the electrician came up with this plan based on where he could put the lights (our ceiling is full of plumbing, HVAC, etc) and how many he thought we needed. We went over to our local Lamps Plus and discussed the plan with them, and they agreed with the 9 cans, although it was overkill. The electrican, Lamps Plus, and the people on this forum agree that the cans should be above the front edge of your kitchen counters (i.e. about 2 feet out from the wall). This is important for lighting your work area. We have NO cans in the center of our kitchen (there's no island - the center is just floor space). I don't know if this is part of your problem or not (the fact that much of your lighting is in the center of the kitchen). Before we remodeled we had a fluorescent tube fixture with 2 four foot tubes, in the center of the kitchen, plus one recessed can light over the sink. It was lit fine without shadows. Back to the new lighting: The electrician put halogen PAR bulbs in the cans, and we couldn't stand the light that they produced. The shadows were very harsh. I also didn't like the heat they produced - I really noticed that they added to the kitchen heat. I researched here and elsewhere on the web, and decided to go with LED recessed cans. I think that's what davidtay is referring to on your lighting thread, but I'm not sure (as opposed to just replacing your bulbs with LED bulbs). I got the Cree LED cans that davidtay referred to. They are very expensive at about $80 per light. Cree has come out with a slightly cheaper version now, but I don't know how much it is. Cree seems to be a very well respected brand. We are VERY happy with these Cree LED lights. They are incredibly bright (they are also dimmable) and do not cast the harsh shadows that the halogens did. The lights are more of a glow. They are very easy to install if you already have the recessed cans. Here is a picture from the middle of our installing them. The light on the left is LED and the light on the right is halogen. You can clearly see the harsh shadows on the right vs the glow on the left. You can also see a color difference (we got the 2700 deg LEDs). Also, the light in the upper left corner of the pic is LED and the one over the glass cabinet is halogen. Part of the reason that I got the LEDs was that I like to leave the kitchen lights on at night, even when we are not in the kitchen, or if we leave the house. I didn't want to feel like I was wasting so much energy. Now we dim them all the way down and it's a really nice amount of light. We got our LEDs from Polar-ray (I have no affiliation with them but they are local for us) - they get good reviews on the web. I would also recommend what the others are recommending: go to a local lighting store first. They will be able to help you with your personal lighting situation. The under counter lights are really nice too. Here is a link that might be useful: Polar ray link to Cree LR6 LED lights...See MoreLighting help for our low ceiling basement
Comments (20)I would start by retrofitting the existing square can with an LED kit that screws into the exsisting socket and that will help those produce more light than they are now. something like this: https://elcolighting.com/products/8-square-led-retrofit-insert In front of the fireplace, you could keep the existing track there and just get 2 smaller track heads for the one by the tv. its just in a very redundant spot. After you brighten up the existing cans see if you actually need that light. if you do I would put in a 4 inch recessed light with a square trim. or a single spotlight aimed at the doorways....See MoreHelp! Need ideas for what to do w/ small kitchen
Comments (32)I 100% understand wanting to renovate your kitchen. However, I too would wait until you can spend more on a full redo. And as someone else said, you don't want to lock yourself into appliances that fit these cabinet measurements if are going to do more of a full redo down the line. So set a budget for what you want to spend on something you can live with for a few years. This is what we did and were able to create a really beautiful in between look. * Perhaps getting a SS fridge, microwave, and dishwasher but leaving the ovens and range white will help tone down the white. Wait for a Memorial Day sale to get them cheaper at a big box store. * Inexpensive backsplash, beautiful faucet, and new hardware will do wonders. * Depending on what you come up with you may or may not need to replace countertops for now. * Get accessories and art in there that make you happy....See Moremaybeiloveyou
12 years agodebrak_2008
12 years agoanon0904
12 years agomaybeiloveyou
12 years agomaybeiloveyou
12 years agoI took some quick photos:
Left side of the kitchen. The cabinets to the left of the fridge make up the pantry.
Pantry.
Cabinets + corner super susan (dishwasher goes here)
Right side of kitchen
Corner super susan + what the lower drawers look like
Right side of stove
What the upper cabinets look likeI hope this helps you out a bit!
debrak_2008
12 years agoanon0904
12 years agodebrak_2008
12 years agophoggie
12 years agomaybeiloveyou
12 years ago
anon0904