We can divide the kitchen into 2 different areas, each with specific lighting requirements:
- the work area;
- the dining table.
In the work area you usually handle several utensils when you prepare your meals, and some of them are sharp and cutting.
As a result, you might want to choose intense, sharp, shadow-free lighting that allows you to see exactly what you’re doing.
- If there are wall units, it is essential to install LED strips with very high colour rendering, so as not to offset the colour of the food.
Pay attention to low-quality LED strips, which emit a bluish light and make food look uninviting.
- In the work area, you may often find an island or a peninsula. In this case, you will need ceiling lighting fixtures with direct light, not glaring and again with a very high colour rendering, that can illuminate the worktop in a perfect way.
In addition to providing assistance during the preparation of meals, it is also the ideal solution that allows you to host impressive happy hours whenever you receive guests in your kitchen.
For the dining table, you’ll need to install a direct light source to illuminate the dishes properly, as well as adding a decorative element to the room – like one or more designer pendant lamps with a strong character.
In this case, too, attention to visual comfort should be the first concern.
Secondly, the pendant lamps should be positioned at a level where they won’t spread neither too much nor too little light.
Finally, it is best to choose dimmable lighting fixtures that can provide well-being throughout the entire evening – the light at 8:00 PM could in fact be too bright at 11:00 PM.
In some cases, it may not be possible to install a pendant lamp over the table.
There are specific swing-arm lamps that can solve this problem and still provide a direct light source.
One thing to avoid in the kitchen is to use indirect lighting only.
Especially in a spacious room, the light would scatter excessively and the table would not be properly illuminated.
Indirect lighting is necessary to balance the light diffusion in the room in case the pendant lamp over the table only provides direct light and therefore does not illuminate upwards as well.
