Meghan: Kitchen lighting is one of those things that can make or break your kitchen. If it is ill planned, your kitchen just would not function right and it is not going to be that show stopper you are hoping for which is why I am on my way to go see Jeff Dross of Kichler Lighting to learn the right way to plan the lighting in your kitchen.
I am hitting the road, searching for answers and finding great design. It is a quest for beauty, function and of course inspiration.
When I arrived at Kichler Lighting, I met with Jeff Dross, the Senior Product Manager. He took me to a mock kitchen setup to see the different lighting options for kitchens and I found out that while one giant light in the center of the kitchen works, your best bet is to use multiple different lights when planning your kitchen lighting.
What is the best mixture of lighting in the kitchen?
Jeff: I think you need again three different types of light. You need to have a general illumination.
Meghan: Which is?
Jeff: Which is that big fixture in the middle or the recessed fixtures around the kitchen. The second thing that you want to have task lighting.
Meghan: Task lighting illuminates the surfaces where you work which makes it easier to see what you are doing. Under cabinet lighting and lighting over kitchen islands are two types of task lighting.
Jeff: And then you need accent lighting and the accent lighting is, like we said before, it is just a little bit of jewelry that you add to the kitchen.
Meghan: You can find accent lighting for your toe kick, inside your cabinets, behind your crown molding, anything that highlights the beautiful details of your kitchen or create that soft ambient lighting. But even with the best assortment of kitchen lighting, it can all go wrong if you forgot to plan for the switches.
Jeff: Make sure that you have the appropriate amount of switches. Do not put one switch that turns everything out. That is probably the biggest mistake.
Meghan: You need to have switches for the different types of lighting for your task, for your ambient.
Jeff: And even geographic switching. So, you have a large kitchen counter and maybe it turns around in the other side of the room. Consider having multiple switches, one that will control the side that is over here and then another that will switch here.
Meghan: And dimmers are a good idea.
Jeff: Dimmers are great. Now, you just need to select dimmers where you think they are going to do you the most good.
Meghan: By using a combination of multiple switches and dimmers, you can create different levels of light for different occasions in the kitchen.
Jeff: So consider this, you have spent your entire day cooking a meal, the kitchen is a mess, you clean the kitchen and naturally people migrate to the kitchen after the party starts. You do not want to keep the bright lights on because maybe you forgot to clean up this one little corner of your counter and it has got a little bit of crumbs there.
Meghan: They are allowing people to get lazy now.
Jeff: Right, well you can if you want to but—
Meghan: All right, maybe that was not the best example for why you want different levels of light in your kitchen, but it does make the point. We use our kitchens not just for cooking anymore but for entertaining, homework, relaxing, reading and all of those different activities are performed best under different types of lighting. So in planning your kitchen lighting, be sure to mix general, task and accent lighting and do not forget about the switches.
Check out my website AsktheDecorator.com to discover more about this topic, read informative how to articles or watch other videos from my trip. You will find a variety of helpful decorating advice when you stop by.
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