Factors to Consider When Lighting Your Kitchen
When choosing kitchen lighting, appearance and style are very important. Your lighting should complement the overall kitchen design. Your lighting should also work for tasks like cooking and cleaning. After all, who wants to chop vegetables in the dark?
Consider for a moment, the commercial equivalent of kitchen lighting – there are codes and regulations around lighting areas where food is stored and prepared. The idea is to have brightness, light quality, and coverage standards that increase safety. Better visibility = better decisions and functionality in terms of food safety and occupational safety. Yes, many Michelin-starred restaurants have moody lighting around the dining table, but you can bet with 100% certainty that the food preparation and storage areas in the kitchen are brightly lit and up to code.
Foodie-level chefs tend to have the same expectations for residential kitchen preparation and storage areas. But even budding culinary experts can benefit from taking cues from the tightly regulated world of professional culinary arts – well-lit kitchens make sense.
However, what’s not unreasonable is the assumption that most of your kitchen should always be brightly pro-kitchen. Don’t forget early mornings and late nights when limited lighting is more suitable for making coffee or a midnight snack. And then there are the dining areas, such as the island seating and nearby dining area. Most people also like the area to be adapted for various situations.