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Lighting Design Dilemma Kitchens

Kitchen lighting - how to best design overhead / recessed lighting?

6 months ago

Hi All,

Looking for some advice on how best to layout overhead lighting for a new kitchen renovation. A brief summary of layout with questions below:

8 ft ceilings
No windows; however to the northeast there will be a 16' sliding door that opens into general kitchen and living area that is off page. Dining nook (8'10" ceilings) will have tall windows
West wall of kitchen will have column fridge/freezer and vent hood; however no upper cabinets. Only lowers. Considering a small ledge at backsplash
South wall of kitchen will have full depth floor to ceiling cabinetry with double ovens and bev center/appliance nook
10'ft island will have seating on east side and waterfall counters on both ends

Questions:

With no upper cabinets, what may be most appropriate layout for recessed lighting? Typically would put lighting at edge of counter, with under cab lights. And mirror recessed lights along edge of island counter. In this case, we can actually put lighting over the center of the counter tops. Would it then make sense to have recessed lighting along the center of the walkway aisle instead?
I am considering a 108" linear downlight for the length of the island in lieu of individual pendants ( Cirrus Ceiling D1 Lens Downlight w/ Remote Power by PureEdge Lighting | CCCS-7W-4S-120-30K-BZ | EDG822670 (lightology.com). This is probably sufficient to light the sink so recessed cans over island likely not needed?
For dining nook, would a pendant centered on table with some recessed lighting work better or perhaps on fixtures on the east and south wall? There is a change of ceiling height.

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Comments (2)

dan1888
6 months ago
last modified: 6 months ago
If you consider two people working, having the sink and cooktop back-to-back creates bumping and blockage. Use your software to add another person and you'll see the problem. A large main sink on the island is more of a last resort for spaces smaller than yours. It's better than putting the cooktop on the island.

Work zone 4" leds can be placed 6" in from the edge of the counter with two offset for where you'll be prepping. The exhaust hood can have lights for the range area. 450 lumens minimum at the counter in the kelvin temperature you like. 3500k is one. Home - DMF Lighting
Lyn Nielson
6 months ago
for starters...think of all the spots you will need task lighting overhead.

when I position recessed lighting in a space, I prefer the light stream to overlap, like ever 3 ft. I put lights over ever door. I easpecially think about wall washingm especially if there are no upper cabinets. lights positioned 6" away from the wall highlights the wall.

eye ball lights to direct on artwork or special features.

Especially nice if the wall has an interesting finish, like beadboard, or any texture.

You never have enough light. Remember to Put areas on different circuits.
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Yes, it will be "fine" ....but it could be better, because most of the light will be illuminating floor space instead of the the front of the counters/stove (where most of your work takes place, so you generally want that as well lit as possible) or the cabinet interiors. Undercabinet lights will have to overcome the shadow that will be cast by having the ceiling lights behind you, so you have less illumination than you might - and still, only if you make sure that they are installed at the front of the cabinets, not back next to the wall as most contractors will do. That is what the lighting design pro that I paid for emphasized to me. It will be very easy for your installer follow that plan, but just position the lights over the edge or just off the edge of the counters. He will just have to use a few inches more wire for each light.
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So then take out the wall, leave the post and rethink the space. I was referring to the dining area. @JustMe, I would love to! It's just way more complicated than I'd like. I created a thread on this last year (maybe earlier, time goes by so fast anymore) but I can't find it now. The issue I have is with stairs and banisters in the room (one going up, one going down) that make my layout options very, very limited. In my dream world, I'd remove that orange wall entirely, then build a faux chimney and electric fireplace on the outside wall where the orange currently connects. Then have a nice open floor plan with the living room and kitchen. The problem is that there's only about 12' from the outside wall to the banister / hole-in-the-floor that leads to the basement. Giving a 4' clearance to walk in front of that hole, that leaves me a mere 8'! So if I put in my pretty fireplace and a TV above it, then the front of the furniture would be roughly 6' away from the fireplace. And they would still be kind of in the way. I wish I could find that thread, but I went through my entire Activity list AND searched it on Google, with no luck :-/ But I'm pretty sure that no one had any ideas, it's just a poorly designed area with no easy solution. I might make another thread on it tomorrow. It's frustrating, I know that I made a floor plan drawing and everything but now I can't find any of it!
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