Easy Kitchen Lighting Styling

Not so long ago it was not unusual to find many a household kitchen looking more like a factory canteen than the welcoming hub of the home

. They were seen as principally functional places - to store and prepare food and wash up - and were lit accordingly.

It was almost standard practice back then to fit fluorescent tubes, inevitably set in the center of the ceiling. You couldn't dispute the fact that they lit the place brightly, but that was about all they had going for them. In all other respects they were good for turning even the nicest kitchen into something resembling an interrogation cell by night.

These days, people tend not to congregate so much in the lounge but opt to stop and gather in the kitchen. Modern kitchen designs boast features such as breakfast bars, island units and ad hoc informal areas intended for social interaction. But all too often the lighting needs to play catch up.

The way that most kitchens are structured means that ceiling lights don't actually function very effectively since wherever you stand to carry out culinary tasks, either you yourself or a wall cupboard is likely to throw a shadow right over the task area before you.

That's not to say overhead lighting has no place - it certainly does, but mainly to deliver ambient background light. A job that is anyway much better performed by recessed down lights than neon tubes. But to really give a kitchen sparkle requires the use of all manner of other types of light.

One of the easiest ways to improve a kitchen is with pendant lights suspended quite low over strategic locations. These are an especially effective means of lighting a kitchen island for example. Another is to use wall cabinets as lighting platforms.

Depending on how it's mounted and its position within the kitchen, a cabinet can be used for up-lighting or for concealed worktop lights. If it's open or glass fronted then a further option that works well is to put lights actually inside the cupboard.

LED strip lights are almost certainly the simplest and quickest way to install cabinet lighting; they also have the benefit that they use very little power and don't emit heat. LED light strips can also be used to accent features, picking out the line of a plinth for example.

Above all, LEDs really do complement the various artifacts and surfaces typically found in a kitchen and more than any other type of lighting they make a statement that simply oozes modern style.

by: Theresa Stosur

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