The organization of thoughtful lighting in the kitchen works wonders, creating the best atmosphere for cooking, eating and communicating with loved ones. Achieve the creation of the most comfortable conditions allows the correct selection of fixtures.
Currently, consumers are available many effective lighting solutions for arranging premises for various purposes. Let's figure out how to choose a lamp in the kitchen, consider errors in the arrangement of accents.
Common Kitchen Options
There are several popular options for organizing lighting in the kitchen. Each of them can be effectively used in combination with each other or separately. So, what elements are most often used as the main, basic light source:
- Recessed spotlights.
- Bus lamps.
- Overhead lights.
- LED lights.
- Chandeliers or pendant lights.
How to choose lamps for the kitchen? A photo of the solutions presented in this material will help to navigate the issue. In general, when planning lighting, it is important to ensure that the general illumination has the function of switching on in parts. The presence of such an opportunity will allow you to use the required amount of light depending on the situation, which will affect the reduction of energy consumption.
Cooking area
It is immediately worth noting that here the most bright fixtures for the kitchen are selected that will not make you peer into the pots when cooking. The main requirement for lighting elements in this working area is easy cleaning from fat deposits, soot, resistance to moisture and elevated temperatures.
It is rational to place luminescent fixtures for an oblong shaped kitchen or an abundance of sufficiently powerful point sources of light with halogen lamps. Installation can be carried out directly under the cabinet of hinged furniture or above a working apron.
For the convenience of cooking, it is also desirable to equip the hood with bright lights. With the onset of the evening, such lighting allows you to save on energy consumption when working behind a stove.
Dinner Zone
The kitchen table is often located close to the window. Therefore, in the main part of the essence, the need for
artificial lighting is reduced. However, at least a few lighting elements are still required here.
The lower the ceiling lamp is located above the table, the more comfortable the household feels during the meal. Placing the light closer to the ceiling creates a more festive atmosphere. However, whatever option is chosen, the lighting must necessarily cover the entire countertop.
If the dining table is installed close to the wall, a sconce with a cloth or matt light diffuser is hung above it at a height of about 1-1.5 m.
Transit zone
If there is a fairly cramped kitchen, the allocation of the so-called
transit zone looks superfluous. There is enough emphasis on the workspace and dining table. However, the only ceiling lamp in the kitchen does not allow creating comfortable conditions for finding a non-standard layout in a voluminous room. Here you have to look for solutions for lighting walkways.
The above task is realized by installing suspended ceilings that contain built-in spotlights to illuminate the kitchen or by installing additional ceiling chandeliers.
An interesting effect when illuminating the transit zone is able to create LED elements located around the entire perimeter of the ceiling. At the same time, the height of the walls visually increases, which looks like an important point for owners of small-sized housing.
When arranging the passage zone, it is advisable to select LED lamps for the kitchen, the design of which matches the design of the other lighting devices and does not conflict with the used interior solutions.
Decorative lighting
In addition to the practical purpose of lighting, when delimiting the kitchen space into separate areas, designers are increasingly paying attention to decorative lighting, which plays the role of decoration, creates a special mood and positive atmosphere.
Separate accents highlight interior elements: carved surfaces, columns, engraving, furniture details. Decorative LED lamps for the kitchen in classic sets are especially popular.
Lighting profiles located along the edge of the countertop or along the bottom of the hinged furniture look spectacular. Decorative ceiling lighting is most often organized through the installation of LED strips, the installation of colored neon tubes, oblong fluorescent lamps or duralight.
Furniture interior lighting
It is enough to choose a lamp in the kitchen that can be placed in drawers, wall cabinets, and indoor work will be greatly simplified. This solution is especially attractive when there is furniture with stained or frosted glass inserts.
How to choose a lamp for the kitchen to illuminate the cabinets from the inside? The best solution here is to install LED elements. The latter do not heat up and are therefore absolutely safe. Choosing a kitchen lamp with an LED for interior lighting of furniture, you can significantly reduce energy consumption.
Such lighting can be switched on when pulling out drawers, opening cabinet doors or working constantly. In all cases, its organization will allow you to quickly find the necessary items in the kitchen without activating the main light sources.
Common mistakes
One of the main mistakes of the owner when arranging kitchen lighting is the development of the layout before choosing a headset. What kind of fixtures will be on the ceiling of the kitchen, it is necessary to determine before performing repairs, during which the room will be divided into separate functional zones. The application of this approach will allow you to place the lighting fixtures exactly in those places where they are really needed and will be useful.
Many homeowners believe that to illuminate the kitchen, it is enough to place one lamp in the central part of the ceiling. Such a solution is quite acceptable for cramped rooms. However, it has several drawbacks. Performing work behind the stove or preparing the ingredients of dishes on the surface of the headset, the person is located with his back to the light source. Thus, the countertop remains in the shade, which in practice is not very convenient. As a result, the ceiling lamp does not bring almost any benefit, because the important functional areas remain shaded.
It is advisable to install spotlights in the kitchen, which make it possible to adjust the brightness of the lighting. For this reason, it is worth giving preference to switches with a rheostat, which allows you to change the saturation of the light flux depending on the conditions of the work, needs and mood. As a result, during a quiet dinner with your family, you can dim the light and relax. On the contrary, during cooking - to make the lighting brighter. At the same time, you should not save on buying a rheostat. Cheap appliances fail quite quickly with regular use.
Warm and cold light
Any lighting has its own color cast. Based on this, it is recommended to select lamps that do not distort natural light. Looking through the fixtures in the kitchen, photos of suitable models, it is worth once again to take an interest in the index of their color rendition. The indicator affects how much food, kitchen utensils, and interior details in artificial light will have a natural look. Indicated by the marking Ra. The optimal value for most rooms is about 90-100 Ra.
An ideal option as the main source of light in the kitchen is a lamp that produces a glow of a yellowish soft shade. It is such radiation that halogen elements and incandescent lamps produce.
Cold shades of the light spectrum darken the room. In particular, it is not necessary to install lamps in the kitchen that exude a greenish, purple and blue glow. In cold light, foods look the least appetizing.
Project cost
As practice shows, to create high-quality lighting in the kitchen with dividing the room into separate zones, you have to spend about 10-15% of the budget for repairs. Half of this amount will be spent on the purchase of lighting fixtures and switches directly. The rest will go to pay for installation. Naturally, you can save a little if you can independently install the fixtures.
Finally
Which lamp is better to choose for the kitchen? If there is a modest-sized room with a standard layout, it is not so difficult to find the answer to the presented question. Usually it is enough to install one or more light sources.
To facilitate the selection of lighting elements for a large kitchen, it is worth dividing its area into several functional zones. The best option for the workspace is bright local lighting. As for the dining area, here you can consider several solutions, for example, the installation of adjustable lights that can create both romantic twilight and reproduce quite bright light.