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Remodeling Lighting Kitchens

Lighting Help!! Kitchen / Dining Area Comments and Opinions Here!

last month

last modified: 25 days ago

Hey All,

I think I've finally settled on a kitchen design that should flow well and serve our needs. I'm currently working on cabinet interiors (drawers, pullouts, shelves, etc.) What I'm sort of struggling with is lighting the kitchen. I can't seem to get a straight answer. I've feel like I've learned about everything from BR and Par bulbs to amps, watts, lumens, foot-candles and I'm still not 100% on some final questions. I'm working on another diagram to show the light count I'm considering but I'm wondering if I'm crazy because of the quantity of lights. Also, I'm having difficulty finding the luminesce and candella specs for bulbs that show exact foot candles at which heights and their appropriate diameters. Can someone provide guidance?? Here's what I have so far; 14 general recessed cans, dimmable, 3 pendant lights, 1 dining light, and one above sink light and undercabinet led lights. Questions Below.

Am I crazy off with these numbers?
Is roughly 100fc too much?
I have the cabinets and the island (on non-seating side) lined with lights right above the edge, is this sufficient?
The remaining lights are in the walkway centers (south and east walls), does this work?
I have recessed lights at 48" from the fridge front and 36" in front of the pantry. Does this work?
Cans are placed roughly 4' from another aside from the above about the pantry and the fridge

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Comments (4)

3onthetree
last month
If you can mark the actual light placement on the plan that would be more helpful than interpreting sentences.

100fc is definitely on the high side for an entire kitchen, at the low side for a surgery table. Even as a professional, I do not attempt to calculate footcandles of lights over an entire space. We hand lighting layouts to the electrical engineer, who then hands it to Cooper Lighting, who's computers spit out the photometrics. Light throws cross and overlap, so it is not a black and white equation. So do not get bogged down in fc numbers and exact cone angles.

For a kitchen of this size and level, start with the basics of your preference and budget for size of lumenaire, trim style, room cabinets and finishes (e.g. glossy, lots of nooks for shadows, etc), and aesthetic goals. For typical kitchen use, lighting cannot be engineered exactly perfect (neither aesthetically or functionally), instead there is lots of leeway in how lights are placed to make it function and look great.

And prior to lighting, it could be helpful to have your kitchen layout reviewed first, there are some really sharp people that might have some input.
Noor
Original Author
25 days ago
@3onthetree thanks for the comment! It's taking me a bit but I've uploaded a new blueprint with the lighting I talked about. I'll attach to this comment as well. I appreciate your perspective. I'm aware 100fc may be on the high side but there's a good chance we end up with very dark (almost black) cabinetry so I want to ensure we have enough light especially for the hard to see spots. I'd rather have more light that I can dim than not enough light. Also as a DIYer I don't have access to a lighting guy that can do photometrics for me (hence the attempted calcs). Any help and additional input would be appreciated.
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Comments (27)
Great comments! Keep them coming. I like the idea of pull- outs in the pantry. Sounds like it may be better than having a walk in. You are all giving me something to think about. Yes, the built-in buffet was an add-in that we requested due to limited storage space. And I agree it looks like it was just kind of stuck in there. I will be having my cabinets custom made so I am hoping to make it look better when done. I could recess the refrigerator back into the wall, but will that impinge on the entry space from the garage? I am afraid to open up the the den/kitchen area too much as I will lose some important cabinet spaces. I currently do not have a walk in pantry in my own home but we love our shallow depth (recessed in) wall cabinet. I open it up and can find everything. Although, my bulky items do have to go in a small hall closet. If I were to open up the space between the two rooms, how would that open up more design options? All I see with that would be open air with lost cabinet spaces. I think I would rather have more cabinet space. As for our broken-up design. I like a Traditional home. I currently live in one. I like having private more quiet spaces. Believe it or not I recently had a young family couple call us who found out I will be putting this house on the market soon. They are looking for a less open home to buy due to the noise factor of their current open design. The LR and DR were designed for pocket doors to keep out my animals when I am not using them. These will be glass pocket doors to allow light and open up the space visually. I can't stand that my cats and dog now have access to both rooms and lay all over my DR table and LR furniture. I will be having all wood floors with Oriental rugs so I don't think I will have to worry about my carpets going bad. There will only be two of us living in this home. We will be living on the main floor. The majority of our square footage is actually on the first floor. The home looks much bigger than it is going to be. The left end of the home that you don't see (couldn't fit it on my scanner) will have a MBR suite with a large walk-in closet and an additional second master (exercise room) with a separate full bath. The second floor is separated. The bonus storage space (not to be finished) over the garage can only be accessed through the laundry room. We can not have a basement due to the high water table where we will be moving. There will be two bedrooms upstairs sharing a Hollywood bath and a sitting area above the library. This area has two staircases that access it. One from the library stairs and the central staircase.
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Comments (14)
Wow! Lots of questions! Haha! Let's see. We live in New Orleans and are a very casual, fun, energetic family. DH and I are in our mid 30's and have a 9 year old and a 6 year old. Both kids are active outside of school. TV is a big part of our lives because of sports, movies, kids, etc. But Mike's Den is where lots of the sports programming will take place. :) We are planning to offset the TV and put it to the side of the fireplace for two reasons....1) Now that the kitchen is further over, if someone is in there, it will be more centered to the room as a whole and 2) it can be a bit lower and more at eye-level if it's not above the fireplace. We can make the built-ins accommodate the TV at a level more comfortable for viewing. There will also be a playroom/media room upstairs for the kids. So the Living Room TV will be the group/family TV I suppose. We take turns cooking but both work. So we aren't gourmet cooks but we enjoy cooking meals. We enjoy conversations from the kitchen, thus wanting the open plan. I'd say that because of kids' evening activities, we probably cook 3-4 days a week maybe? Other nights we grill or get take out, pick something up or go out to eat on the way home. The porch. The house (again, in New Orleans...flooding) must be elevated a bit). This porch is elevated with the house. I know we will also have lower space for a table and chairs and the grill, that we haven't laid out yet. We actually did talk about widening the porch. How wide would you suggest? My dad suggested 1-3 feet wider. What do you think? The front door...you see the stairs to the right of the kitchen? And the open pass-through there under the stairs in the drawing? If you go through that pass through...actually straight from the back door, you'd pass the turned stairs above you and a guest room above, master below (in the drawing) and the front door is that way. It's a narrow, New Orleans lot...50x122, which has made things interesting to lay out! :) Thanks again guys! Your feedback is great! Oh, and again, the furniture placement and the kitchen appliances, etc. is just there in the drawings as a guide. It's not fixed or anything. It's just a visual thing for reference.
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Comments (5)
edlakin, I do have pipes in the corner from just above the range and just past the sink. I am 'getting rid' of the soffits by hiding these pipes in the upper cabs in that corner - cabs will be 36" to ceiling with a crown (my ceiling is actually about 7' 10"). But I will still need some sort of "soffit" over my sink. Before we discovered the pipes I was really excited about having it open to the ceiling over my sink, but unfortunately we have to work with what we've got - and I don't want to take on the expense of relocating the piping. The existing fixture on the left is actually centered to the window - it is a flush mount. I'll have to ask about centering it to the U - I like that idea. overlyoptimistic - I like the placement you suggested, but would it look too busy up there? I definitely want the two over the cabinets next to the fridge as that is a pretty dark corner (there's nothing there now!) Would four more on the other side be too much? Thanks so much for the input! I'm so glad I asked!
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Comments (6)
I like the second chandelier better for your room. Schoolhouse pendants would go better with that one. If you want another option, consider getting rid of the pendants altogether and do a rectangle chandelier for over the island: [https://www.houzz.com/products/wood-rectangle-chandelier-light-4-lights-prvw-vr~107951237[(https://www.houzz.com/products/wood-rectangle-chandelier-light-4-lights-prvw-vr~107951237) And pair it with the shaker chandelier over the dining area.
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3onthetree
23 days ago
You certainly don't need another row of lights between the sink wall counter edge lights and the island lights. You also don't need a sink light and one at the sink counter edge. The outer aisles not sure of other adjacent rooms and where openings are. The island you don't want pendants banging your forehead and if you have a chandelier shown for the table you don't want pendants competing with that.

Maybe still a new clean thread for the cabinet layout would be beneficial, I'm thinking there will be some input on the microwave, the island seating, the cabinets flanking the windows, and some function placement like the wine rack.
Noor
Original Author
23 days ago
last modified: 23 days ago
Interesting @3onthetree Agree with the sink light will remove it. Are you saying I should remove the bright orange middle row of lights above the island and dining area? From the pendant/ chandelier perspective. Are you thinking perhaps 4 pendants centered across the middle extending across the island and dining are or a single long chandelier doing the same? Also, some of the items you mentioned such as the wine rack have changed. Lastly, I do have a thread for the kitchen design, take a look here. Thanks for your input thus far! Also, currently all walls closed and single door entry in the south east corner - https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6262730/kitchen-dining-area-remodel-ideas-and-questions

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