Inspiration

4 Types of Lighting for Your Kitchen

Your kitchen is naturally a centerpiece of your home. This is a place where you spend a great deal of time with your family. As such, you will naturally need different kinds of lighting for the different functions that the kitchen provides for you.
The design industry defines four major types of lighting that you should consider when designing your kitchen. Here we will go through those four types and provide a short description of each so that you can recognize them when you see them.

General Lighting

General lighting is for the general tasks that take place in your kitchen. This is also the lighting that you will use most of the time. During those busy weekdays when everyone is running through the kitchen grabbing things out of the refrigerator and running to work, general lighting provides safety, comfort and functional assistance. This lighting should be bright enough to illuminate everything that needs to be done without becoming a distraction.
This type of lighting may also be called “accent lighting,” but it means the same thing. To get this effect, open bottom fixtures that aim light straight downward are the appropriate choice. Keep in mind that powerful light bulbs used with this kind of fixture can create a harsh light.

Task Lighting

This kind of lighting is fairly self-explanatory. Decorative lighting fixes itself on a particular feature in your kitchen such as a couch or a piece of art. In most cases, decorative lighting doesn’t come from a traditional pendant. However, if you are lighting a countertop that is stone or wood, this kind of lighting will help to accentuate the material’s beautiful tones. Task lighting is also great against polished metals or flecked stone – you get a little bit of sparkle that definitely adds an air of luxury to your kitchen.

Task Kitchen Lighting | Kitchen Art Design

Ambient Lighting

This is lighting that spreads throughout the entire room and does not target any particular spot. However, you do not always need the biggest lights or pendants if you are going for ambient lighting. You may actually want to use multiple lights that are evenly spread throughout the kitchen, or you can use less fixtures with more bulbs per fixture for an even performance.

If you want a softer mood in your kitchen that gives everyone an excuse to mingle, this is the type of lighting for you.

Decorative Lighting

This is lighting that is meant to decorate your kitchen just like any other accent in the room. You may achieve this effect from the light itself, or it can produce a shadow or sparkle that serves the decorative purpose. If you already have the general and ambient lights that you want in a room, the rest of your pendants should have a softer glow and stay away from targeting any particular part of the kitchen.

Decorative Lighting | Kitchen Art Design

You can actually take your time with this kind of lighting to see how different intensities and pendant shapes flow with your individual kitchen. For instance, you may look for a combination that casts an interesting shadow on the ceiling. If you have an especially high ceiling, this is definitely a great feature to have to keep the eye moving up and expand the kitchen naturally.

Depending on the type of kitchen you want to keep, you may want to prioritize one type of lighting over the others in your home. However, a versatile kitchen has all four of these lighting types installed. You should always have a way to set the mood and change it on a moment’s notice in the modern kitchen.

You have many options when it comes to installation; make sure that you understand everything that is possible before deciding on how you will implement these four lighting styles into your kitchen.

Allow us at Kitchen Art Design to lend you our design and building expertise honed over more than 30 years. Our designers take an experienced and creative approach to meeting your design needs, and our cabinet makers carefully and skillfully bring your cabinet designs to life.