How to Center a Table With Recessed Lighting

Recessed lighting over a table -- whether the table is in a loft, great room in an open floor plan, kitchen or dining room -- helps to define your space. A kitchen or dining room table often serves multiple purposes in the home, and recessed lighting gives the table both task lighting and mood lighting. Center a table with recessed lighting to take full advantage of the lights for a relaxed mood at meals -- and focused illumination for household accounts, homework, reading, craft projects or playing cards.

Heavy-duty tape measure
Grid paper (optional)
Masking or painter's tape

Instructions

- 1
  Turn on the recessed lights and any other lights in the room, such as a chandelier, pendant light or lamps. Check the lighting at night, to see if the illumination is adequate for task lighting, if needed.
- 2
  
  Mark the position of the lights on grid paper to center the table.
  
  Extend a tape measure from the floor to the center of a light. Check that the tape measure is straight. Mark the floor with masking tape or painter's tape directly below the light. Measure from the light to the nearest wall in a straight line and then mark the light's location on the grid, using a 1-inch-to-1-foot scale. Alternatively, if you have a copy of the house plans or room plan, check if the light positions are marked. This will help you center a table with the recessed lights.
- 3
  Position the table under the recessed lights so it receives even illumination, if possible. For example, center a table under two rows of recessed lights on one side of the kitchen, using the grid plan as a guide.
- 4
  Adjust the table's position to allow enough space for walkways and to pull out the chairs, if necessary. As a general rule, allow 36 inches for chairs to pull out from the table, and increase the amount of space if the household includes people who need more clearance, such as a person who uses a wheelchair or a walker. For example, center the table under one row of recessed lights, instead of between two rows of lights, to allow enough room between the table and the wall, if needed.

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