Selecting Lights for Your Kitchen
Kitchens are typically the most used space in the house. It is often a space for multitasking: prepping ingredients, cooking, eating, making grocery lists, reading recipes, all while helping the kids with their homework. To make sure there’s sufficient light to perform these tasks, your kitchen should have a combination of lighting fixtures that serve different purposes.
The main types of lighting for a kitchen are ambient, accent, task, and decorative lights. Here is what you need to know about the different lighting options so that you can best communicate with your Chicago kitchen designer.
AMBIENT LIGHTS
This is the base light of the space and the foundation on which designers create other layers of light. Ambient light typically comes from recessed lights in the ceiling, wall-mounted lights, or a combination of both depending on the room’s size. The light from these sources is usually diffused and covers the entire room. Typically, ambient lights combine with accent lights to form the central lighting source of the kitchen.
Occhio’s io 3d pico rotatable LED ceiling lightsOcchio
Tom Dixon’s stainless steel spot collectionTom Dixon
Sky Garden recessed lightsMarcel Wanders
ACCENT LIGHTS
Dramatic chandeliers, geometric pendants, fluid suspensions — accent lights are usually the central decorative fixture in the kitchen. They can be used with ambient lights (when you need a lot of light) or you can use them independently as well.
Ray Power’s New Wave linear suspension lightLZF
Solaris chandelier by CrystoramaCrystorama
The Chasen by Patricia UrquiolaPatricia Urquiola
The Plena suspension lamp by FoscariniFoscarini
TASK LIGHTS
While ambient and accent lights are great for the entire space, you’ll need lighting options for various tasks that you perform in your Chicago kitchen. For example, if you have an open kitchen with a work desk close by, or use your kitchen island to prep ingredients, read recipes, and make it double as a dining table, you’ll need task lighting to illuminate these specific spots. Strip lights and puck lights are simple, easy, effective options. If you need task lighting for your island, you’ll need to discuss solutions that fit the space with your kitchen designer.
Under cabinet strip lightsView project
Puck lights for this workspaceView project
Task lights built into a range hoodView project
DECORATIVE LIGHTS
Their primary function is to up the style quotient in your Chicago kitchen. You can choose from colorful LED strips to border your countertops or add a string of toe kick lights to the bottom of your kitchen cabinets or islands to create a dramatic look. These lights don’t have to be too bright or functional as they are merely used for decorative purposes.
Toe kick lights
Choosing the right lighting for your Chicago kitchen remodel is essential, and our designers will guide you through the process of selecting the right ambient, accent, task, and decorative lights from collections that are often not available in stores.
We take great pride in our design excellence, craftsmanship, and customer service — we maintain a 5-star average in over 250 customer reviews on Google, Yelp, Angie’s List, and Houzz.
