The Ultimate Guide To Enhancing Your Light Fixture for Kitchen

Have you ever wondered what the different types of light fixtures for kitchen are? With so many lighting fixtures available today, choosing the best for your kitchen can be tricky. That is why I am happy to provide you with the ultimate guide to enhancing your light fixture for the kitchen area.

Go into any kitchen, and you will notice lights are an absolute must. Many people think it sounds lame or boring, but I promise you it will be anything but that. But once you understand the considerations and options available, it’s not as hard as you may think! And when you’re done with this guide, you’ll know more about lighting than your neighbors and maybe even your mom.

In this post, I will walk you through the most popular types of light fixtures for kitchens and how to choose the correct ones.

What Type of Light is Best for a Kitchen?

In interior design, designers consider three layers of lighting for every room. However, every room has different needs, so we must find the right light fixtures for that specific room.

Let’s start with the most significant lighting in a room, ambient lighting.

The most common ambient light for kitchens is the recessed can light. But don’t think that it is your only option. How about chandeliers? Do you feel chandeliers have a place in the kitchen? If not, now you can start considering adding a chandelier in your kitchen because they work perfectly well in a kitchen and add a style to your kitchen that recessed can lights can’t.

Flush or semi-flush mount lights are also an option, but for me, they are dull than other light fixtures for kitchens. 

The second light fixture for kitchens you need to consider is task lighting. When cooking or preparing your dish on your countertop, you need to consider task lighting to ensure you have enough light. 

One of the most common task lighting is the use of pendant lights in the kitchen. However, you can’t use chandeliers and pendant lights altogether; that will look really weird. So, you should pick one of these light fixtures for the kitchen.

Lighting under kitchen cabinets is a great task lighting source if you can. In addition, under cabinet lights are perfect for creating moody lighting in the kitchen, especially in the early mornings.

Other options you can go for as task lighting for the kitchen are track lighting and recessed can lights.

Lastly, you can use LED strip lights in the kitchen as accent lighting.

What Kind of Light is Best Over a Kitchen Sink?

When considering a light fixture over a kitchen sink, you can think of it as task lighting. I mentioned that pendants and recessed can lights are the most common kitchen task lights. Both of them are perfectly fit over a kitchen sink. However, if you haven’t had tall ceilings, you should consider recessed can light rather than a pendant light.

Some people have cabinets over a kitchen sink. In that case, under cabinet lighting for kitchen sink is the best solution.

How to Find the Best Lighting for Kitchen Island

The easiest strategy for choosing a light fixture for a kitchen island is to consider the sizes first. For multiple chandeliers or pendant lights, here is how to find the best size light fixture over a kitchen island:

1. Add the island width to the length.
2. Consider it as inches, and this is the minimum width of your fixture.
3. Add 5 inches to that number for the maximum width.

When it comes to the horizontal spacing for multiple pendants or chandeliers over an island, start the first fixture between 12 and 15 inches (30 and 38 cm) from both sides of the island and distribute them evenly within that space.

Make sure you hang at least 30″ -35″ (75-90 cm) above the island surface. Other than chandeliers and pendant lights, you can work with recessed can light for your kitchen island.

If you are considering placing chandeliers for other rooms, you should check out the perfect chandelier sizes for every room.

We discussed all the best types of kitchen light fixtures, sizes, and placements. So let’s sum up one more time:

• Best lighting for above kitchen sink: pendant and recessed can lights
• Best lighting for over kitchen island: chandeliers, pendants, and recessed can lights
• The best lighting for under kitchen cabinets: LED strip lights

It would help if you remembered that lights could be the main point of interest in your kitchen, so you have to invest time and choose one that will maximize the appeal of your kitchen. You need to consider not just its style but also its functionality if it is meant for illumination purposes.

Besides this, you can think about the functions you need: task lighting, accent lighting, and ambient lighting.

Overall, the best solution for bringing light into the kitchen is to select a fixture that provides ample brightness and matches the decor of your space.

The lighting in your kitchen should let you see all the tasks you need to do. It would be impossible to make a wrong choice when following the tips I mentioned in this article. Good luck!

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