Recommended Lighting for a Kitchen: Bright or Soft

Bright Vs. Soft Lighting

• Use unshaded, high watt incandescent bulbs to create bright or hard lighting. Though it creates a very bright area, hard lighting is often overwhelming and not visually appealing. Soft lighting, as the name suggests, uses a lower watt bulb, creating a soft edge to the light. This look is more visually appealing, but not always the most functional, particularly when it comes to reading recipes or doing homework at the kitchen table. Instead, a combination of the two is usually ideal for the kitchen. Combining the two means there is plenty of light where necessary, but not so much that it hurts the eyes.

General Room Lighting

• General room lighting includes the main lighting source, the lights that come on with the main switch. It provides all-over coverage for the room and should be bright enough to bathe the area in light once the sun sets. Ideal sources of general lighting are recessed can lights or track lighting. Track lighting is especially diverse, as the lights can be aimed to specific areas where more illumination is required. Both of these options are appropriate for most home styles and will work in both large and small rooms. Additional choices include chandeliers or a standard ceiling mounted light fixture.

Task Lighting

• Task lighting includes light sources that focus on a specific area, usually to increase the brightness for certain tasks. In a kitchen, it's likely these lights will be mounted under or near cabinets as well as in parts of the kitchen where meal preparation will occur. This type of light might include track lighting, but more frequently encompasses under-cabinet lights and pendulum lights hanging above an island or pot rack. Under-cabinet lights are generally designed to be hidden, while a pendulum light is usually decorative and highly functional.

Accent Lighting

• Accent lighting usually has a single purpose within a space, usually lighting the inside of a dark cabinet or accenting a piece of wall art. It adds a new layer and some texture to the design of the room and is used on a very minimal basis. The fixture itself is usually small and subtle and designed to blend into the room. Light produced by these appliances will be small and somewhat dim. These pieces will usually be wired separately from the primary lighting pieces and are generally equipped with their own switches to increase or decrease the light as needed throughout the day.