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How to Choose the Right Lighting for Your Home

ceiling with warm lights hanging

When you’re considering your design for the kitchen, you might overlook the lighting. While we’re thinking about the positioning of each element, we can all forget about the overhead lights. Without an appropriately lit kitchen, working in it can be a nightmare. Avoid making additions after construction by following these kitchen lighting tips.

 Avoid Glare  

One of the most common mistakes with kitchen lighting is having one large fixture light the entire room. It creates a single, focused, glaring light. It overpowers all the other elements of your carefully designed kitchen when it’s turned on. With this kind of lighting, all your styling work fades into the background. It is also not advised to avoid this by using recessed lighting. Recessed fixtures can create shadows in corner areas.

Try Different Layers 

The best way to avoid having a glaring light is to use layers. Layered lighting will allow many overlapped, well-lit places. It will also prevent shadows from forming around the edges of the kitchen. There are many different layers you can use in your kitchen lighting plan.

Task Lighting

As the name suggests, task lighting helps you focus the brightness on the task you’re doing in the kitchen. Whether you’re chopping up a vegetable or reading a recipe, you need a clear view of what you’re doing. The best kind of task lighting position is between your head and the work surface. This position means placing lights above countertops and stoves. If you have cabinets directly above your countertops, an excellent solution can be mounting LED lights to their undersides.

Accent Lighting

Many people are familiar with accent lighting, given its recent popularity. Accent lights highlight your favorite parts of your kitchen design. These highlights could be your glass-fronted China cabinets, your glassware, or any centerpieces that you have on your surfaces.

Some accent lights are recessed, and others may be hanging or in sconces to suit your tastes.

Ambient Lighting

Ambient lighting fills the room with a warm glow. In this way, it can soften the shadowed areas of the kitchen and make it feel welcoming. You can place ambient lighting along the top of the wall. This means that the space between your cabinets and your ceiling can be a great spot to install some.

Multi-purpose Lighting

In some cases, you can combine two or more layer functions in one set of lights. One example is under-cabinet lighting. Lighting placed under the cabinet can serve as both task lighting and ambient lighting. Depending on the shade and the brightness you choose, it’s possible to create an ambient glow while making the countertops bright. You can also install a dimmer switch so that you can choose between brighter task lighting and an ambient glow, depending on how you’re spending your time.

Hanging lights are another popular choice for multi-purpose lighting. Depending on the design you choose, a group of hanging lights can be both accent light and task lighting.  A popular location for hanging lights is over the kitchen island. Here, they can highlight the island while providing lighting for eating and meal prep.

Are you interested in more tips and tricks for kitchen design? Reach out to us at Grand Homes and speak to our design team about your ideas for the kitchen of your dreams.

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