Kitchen ceiling lighting is tricky. With other areas of the house, if you try to add lighting, you just need certain lights to light up the room in general. Areas like your living room, hall room, and even bedrooms, you can different types of lights to give you the look and feel you want. But for your kitchen, it’s a very different matter.
Floor lamps have no place in a kitchen and only in very rare cases can they actually work. Kitchen ceiling lights need to perform two jobs at the same time; they need to be powerful enough to illuminate the entire kitchen area which being ambient at the same time and you need to have lighting in small specific areas like islands, countertops, cooking areas, and more so you can see what you are doing.
Some types of light fixtures are ideal for general lighting while others are good for work lighting, which means that you need to have different lighting to brighten up your kitchen ambiance as well as focus on certain areas where you are working or cooking.
LED wall lighting
The classic solution to your kitchen lighting problem is LED wall lights. These lights are energy-saving, durable, and long-lasting and can provide a lot of illumination required for certain areas of your kitchen countertop, kitchen island and will focus light on a particular part. Led lights are ideal to be used near kitchen cabinets, fridges, drawers, and small areas that you may need to see at night without putting on the overhead lighting.
The main advantage of these lights is that they come in different colors from a warm golden light to white light and are aesthetically pleasing, they also don’t occupy a lot of space. These lights, however, cannot be used for an entire kitchen, especially if your space is huge. They are more ideal for focused areas or small kitchens as they will save you a lot on your electricity bills.
Track lighting
Track lighting provides good lighting for the kitchen and has risen in popularity quickly, it comes with many advantages and can be installed directly on the surface of the ceiling as well as individual light fixtures along the track can also be moved when needed. All these individual fixtures can be added or removed according to your needs. Track lighting, when installed as ceiling lights, can be repositioned backward or forward to minimize shadowing but unlike LED lighting, it uses ultra-bright, energy-wasting halogen bulbs, you can always switch this with energy-efficient LED bulbs which produce much less heat and use up less energy.
Flush mount lighting
Flush mount ceiling fixtures are solid performers for general illumination, they shine light in all directions as well as towards the ceiling and look great when you first enter the room. These lights are for overall brightness and don’t do well in small spaces, they won’t illuminate the counter spaces or your drawers and don’t offer focused adjustable light like LEDs.
Undercabinet lighting
No matter what type of ceiling fixtures you use, you will probably need some task lighting that will shine down from the wall cabinets without creating shadows and can be bright and focused in one area without casting light into the entire kitchen. Undercabinet fixtures are sleek, and essentially invisible once they are installed, they are also great at performance and energy efficiency.
The Bottom Line
When picking lighting to complement your kitchen, ensure that you pick your lights widely. Most homeowners opt for different led lights for small and large spaces that are energy-efficient, durable, and long-lasting. Before you go to the store or online, you can do a bit of research and check which fixtures will go well with your kitchen space and try out a couple of different lighting options – you can also contact your store for options that will suit your space well.
