By: Maria Brittis
Kitchen Lighting is something that homeowners tend to forget to take serious.
Natural light can do wonders for a kitchen by making it a happy place to work. When you are planning your kitchen design, think of a place you would like sunlight to enter. For morning sunlight install windows that face east. This is great for morning hours.
Install a large bay window near the breakfast area. If the sun gets to hot, you can install an outdoor awning that can block summer light, or blinds can work.
Talk to your architect or builder about placement of the windows. Make sure that your architect has placed nice size windows to let in light in the kitchen. Some kitchens have no windows. In this case when you are designing your home, make sure your kitchen is placed in an area where you are facing out doors, not in the middle of the house.
There are so many health benefits to having the proper lighting in your kitchen.
You can work better when preparing meals. When hosting a party, your guests can see who they are talking to and what they are eating.
Natural kitchen lighting also has health benefits, such as it has vitamin D. It can help fight the winter blues. During the winter month’s people tend to be more depressed.
Have a cozy breakfast area with plenty of sunlight, where you can read the paper and relax in the morning.
Artificial kitchen lighting
A Light fixture can create ambience if it is place in the right spot.
Task lighting is very popular in the kitchen, such as a series of fixtures above a kitchen island or fluorescent tubes under a row of above kitchen cabinets.
Ambient lighting is scattered all over the ceiling of the kitchen to give an overall everyday light. Track lighting or recess lighting is used for this type of light. You can control the brightness by using a dimmer.
Decorative lighting
This type of lighting draws attention to a specific area such as a pretty back splash. Chandeliers are a form of decorative lighting. Christmas lights can be used though out the year as long as you use it with no color lights. Placing them on artificial plants above the kitchen cabinets can give a great look.
If you are building new home, a good architect will go over the positioning of where all the electrical wiring should be placed. Take it from me; I had to learn the hard way.
I was not told where the lighting would be placed. My first kitchen had only one strip of track lighting. I was not a happy camper. We were always squinting and my kids had a hard time trying to see what I made for dinner.
Get the kitchen lighting done right the first time.
