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Lighting Design Dilemma Kitchens

Desparate. Lighting kitchen with 12 foot ceiling. Recessed or drop?

6 years ago

We have a kitchen with all windows (no under cabinet lighting options) paired with a 12 foot ceiling.

We are concerned that, with these high ceilings, recessed lights will not provide adequate task lighting. Our local lighting store suggests track lighting with a 4 foot drop (at considerable extra cost).

We thought about running rail lighting as suggested around the perimeter to light the outer countertops and three separate pendents for the island but worry with all of these things dropping down so far that it will create too much clutter at the 6-8 foot level. Cords hanging down everywhere!

Layout will look very similar to this photo below except with flat ceiling and virtually no undercabinet lighting options. We would like to have three pendents like this over the island and ALSO a focal pendent in the corner such as they have here. Just not sure how busy that would be with a dropped rail of lights sitting at about 8' over the outer cabinet/countertops plus the three pendants over the island.

Kitchen with island that seats four comfortably. · More Info

Is this the only reasonable option or would recessed lighting work? Someone suggested recessed with a PAR 38 spot (bulb) placed every 3 feet or closer. Has anyone had success (or failure) with this? I would interested in peoples thoughts on this. Thanks! Sara

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Comments (5)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I like cable lighting to give light where you need it in high ceilings since it can be mounted at proper human height. 12’ ceilings make no sense to me at all so this is just the way I handle them. Get LEDs in 5000k to make the best use of wahtever you choose With cable you can add drops above the island I use this system a lot in cathederal ceilinged rooms so that there can be lights over end tables etc.
Sara thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting
Sara
Original Author
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Thank you Patricia. I like this idea. We are putting cable lighting in the open dining living room area which would run perpendicular to any cable lighting we ran in the kitchen. I hope that would not seem too busy. That is why we were wondering if there might be any way to do recessed lighting instead. Of course 12 can lights up in the ceiling would have their own impact on visual clutter. Do you have any thoughts on the different cable lighting brands? Our lighting specialty store recommends tech lighting although they also carry WAC and Juno. Thanks so much for your input. Much appreciated.
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homechef59
6 years ago
I currently have a kitchen with 12' ceilings. I have all recessed LED lights.

Because there are no hanging cabinets, you don't need under cabinet lights. The recessed lights are not blocked by the cabinets. I'm sure there is a preferred measurement from the wall. Mine look like they are about 18" from the wall and shine directly on the counter top.

My recessed lights are all switched so that each of the four walls operates from a different switch. Most of the time, I only need one wall on, but occasionally I'll have a two walls on. All four walls and it looks like a retail store. They are all on dimmers.

I do have a huge center island with an enormous pot rack over it. The pot rack is lit with halogen puck lights. I rarely turn the pot rack lights on. Actually, I'm thinking of getting rid of the pot rack. It's visual clutter and I don't need the storage.

It's just my opinion but I find the wires running across the ceiling visually busy.
Sara thanked homechef59
Sara
Original Author
6 years ago
homechef59,

What a beautiful kitchen!

I am in agreement. We will have cable lighting in our living room area (which has a vaulted ceiling that peaks at 17 feet), but feel that it is just too much happening to have it in the kitchen, especially with the 3 pendent lights over our island.

I am glad to see you have been happy with your recessed lighting with the 12' ceiling. I wonder how apart you spaced each of your lights? I found an article that suggested they should be 2-3 feet apart (given a 12' ceiling), but 2 feet seems awfully tight.

The article also suggest a narrow beam LED PAR 38 bulb. Do you recall if you are using something similar?

We took your suggestion and are putting each wall on a different switch. Thank you so much for your reply. It gives me hope that we can make this work!

Sara
Kenneth Vu
3 years ago
My house has 12" ceiling but i don't known if i should go with 6 inch wide or 4 inch wide recessed with 3 ft apart ? any advise please

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