A lot of people may not realize it but an important aspect of creating a luxury kitchen is perfecting the lighting. In most rooms flooding in natural light with large windows can create a peaceful and stunning look, but in the kitchen most people eliminate the windows to incorporate more space for upper cabinets. So, how do you create a well-lit and gorgeous kitchen without as many windows?
The most important thing to consider when looking at your kitchen lighting is to create total coverage, you want to avoid areas of a kitchen that are completely dark. This is done by layering three key elements: ambient, task, and accent lighting.
First let’s talk about ambient lighting. Ambient lighting is usually the recessed lighting that is evenly or strategically spaced and provides the base lighting for your entire room.
Unlike other rooms in your home, the kitchen is for more than just relaxing; it serves a purpose. Therefore, it requires ample light to perform the various tasks around the kitchen such as chopping vegetables, washing dishes, or cooking over the stove. This type of lighting - task lighting - may be over your stove, over a kitchen island, or underneath your cabinets.
Finally, there is accent lighting. Accent
lighting is where you can get creative and let your imagination take over to install statement pieces you love. Some examples of accent lighting are toe kick lighting below your lower cabinets, lighting inside of glass front cabinet doors, a lit tray ceiling and even lighting that turns on inside of your drawers. Since these lights are not needed as much for function as they are for aesthetic purposes, many people choose to add dimmers to these lights. Adding dimmers to your space give the ability to change the atmosphere in the kitchen at different points in the day.
Now that you have your three different
forms of lighting to create a complete and beautiful space, another thing to consider is the color temperature of your lights. For example, if you have 3500k recessed lights, then your pendants should be within 500k of your ceiling lights. You can have lights that are brighter, but the temperatures should all be consistent.
The perfect lighting is a great finishing touch to make any kitchen look and feel like luxury, and by implementing the elements listed above you can achieve the look in in your own kitchen.
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