Please review kitchen lighting layout (X Post with Lighting)

12 years ago

Hi everyone,

I'm cross-posting this in the lighting forum (newly discovered by me). But since you've provided so many great suggestions, I thought I'd post here also.

We're rushed to complete the lighting layout for our kitchen remodel (cans are going in tomorrow). Pease provide any advice or suggestions to improve our lighting layout.

We've bumped out the front gable to expand the kitchen by 9 feet. The new expanded kitchen will have a vaulted ceiling (8/12 pitch -- 8'3" on the sides and peaking at 12.5' in the center of the kitchen ). We'll have white cabinets, dark counters, hardwood flooring, and stainless appliances.

Our contractor and electrician have already purchased recessed boxes for a sloped ceiling. These will take halogen or regular incandescent flood lights. If I had researched this earlier, perhaps we would have opted for LED. Maybe we can use LED bulbs in the fixtures in the future. but we really can't change much but the spacing/layout at this point.

Specifics:

1) Six 6" cans (circles in pic) in the middle vaulted ceiling kitchen area for general lighting. They will sit at ~10.5' above the floor.

2) Two 5" adjustable cans left/right of the sink and window wall counters (~11' off the floor).

3) Two pendants(TBD) centered over the peninsula(boxes with "x" in pic).

4) Three 5" cans in the flat 8'3" ceiling at the end of the kitchen.

5) Undercabinet lighting for more task lighting and primary countertop work lighting.

6) All of the sets above will be on separate switches and 1-4 will be dimmable.

Thanks for any thoughts/suggestions you can provide.

Thanks again for your help.

Comments (3)

Luv2Laf
12 years ago
Hi there.
I'm by no means a lighting expert, but I can tell you my experience and hope you can benefit from my mistake.

As a result of a hasty design and no research, I placed my 6" cans in the wrong spot along my cabinets. If you put the cans behind the counter - like yours are placed in the design, you will get shadows on your counter top...very annoying shadows.

I then did some research and discovered that the proper placement for the counter lighting is such that the light is centered over the counter's edge. This does indeed eliminate the shadows.

As for distance between cans, the simple plan would be to place your 6" cans, 6 feet apart; 4" cans, 4 feet apart, etc. This is for a standard ceiling. A taller ceiling can have them closer, but I don't know the specifics. This leads me to my next mistake which was to place the 6" cans too close together. My kitchen was too bright and I was never able to find the right combination of bulbs to satisfy my lighting needs. Upon this recent remodel, I did better research and I'm now using 4" cans spaced properly and at the right depth (from the wall out to the counter) and the first round of bulbs (standard 9 watt CFL/50 watt equiv) were perfect.

HTH.
ralphs95
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks Luv. I'm also concerned about the placement of the 6 cans 39 inches from the wall. I agree that they will likely produce shadows if you're standing at the counters, from the lights above and behind. But they will be up at 10.5 feet above the ground and I was thinking that these are for general lighting. I was hoping to use the undercabinet lighting to address the shadows if I was working at the counter.

Is this a reasonable expectation? How bad/annoying do you think the shadows will be?

Thanks again for your help.
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Luv2Laf
12 years ago
I don't know how bad the shadows will be at that height. At the height of my kitchen, about 9 feet, the shadows drove me crazy. I didn't have under-cabinet lighting...so, maybe that will help you. Can you move them closer to the counter edge? The idea is that the light is centered over your workspace to best illuminate that. So, if you picture a cone of light coming down from your ceiling, you will get a picture of how wide the light will disperse. My guess is that if the light is behind you while standing at the counter, that you will have the same shadow that I had, regardless of the height of the ceiling. But, that's just a guess. Sorry, I'm not more help than that.

Are you planning for lighting directly over the sink?