Kitchen lighting suggestions

TomsMom

We have just bought a house which is being totally refurbished.

The builders start on Monday and as some ceilings are being taken down they want a meeting with the electrician regarding the new wiring being done at the same time.

I've always had flourescent lights in the kitchen and would appreciate your thoughts on what is the best lighting for the new kitchen/diner which is long and narrow, 20'9" x 8'2". The kitchen has an extension which has a large window beneath which is the sink unit and dishwasher, then corner cupboard and cooker. Plenty of light down this end. There is the arch into what was the original kitchen before extending it and this is the part that doesn't have much light. At present there is a flourescent tube in the extension part, one in the middle bit (original kitchen) plus one at the dining end. For the dining end we think we'll go for a pendant light above the table.

I wondered about sunken spot lights but having regard to energy costs perhaps these are going to be rather expensive to run. What about spots on a track? Should I stick with flourescent tubes?

The kitchen will probably be shaker style in a light wood, probably dark worktops, the dining table is light solid ash. There will be light wall tiles and probably a tiled floor in the kitchen end but wont have that too dark because of lack of light in the middle bit.

Would really appreciate some suggestions.

paddy's_mum

I've consistently refused to have sunken lights once my sister showed me that the bulbs in her kitchen were burning out at the rate of one a month - they are not cheap to be replacing constantly. Personally, I always prefer fluorescent strip lights - long lasting, shadow free and readily available.

(TomsMom - you may want to join in BB1984's thread First time house renovation since it seems you're at a similar decision making stage as many others on that thread.)

adaze

Unless you buy them when they are on offer from screwfix, then they are super cheap! BTW if they are burning out that fast chances are they have been installed with insufficent air circulation around them (too close to something) and are overheating, I would guess at anyway, or somewhere where they are being knocked (on a ceiling? spider pig?)

If you don't want to recess lights then why not get some nice single spots?

ic

If you have the opportunity, get strip lighting under the wall cabinets that is linked into the main lights circuit, and that is switched via a double switch by the door, alongside the ceiling lights. That way you can use the cheaper strip lighting hidden discreetly under the cabinets day to day, but use fancy ceiling lights when you want to. I did something similar, but placed an accessible switch at the end of the run of units.

Penny_Farthing_2

If you do lots of cutting and prepping round your sink, even though you'll have lots of light in summer from your big window, it gets dark early in winter so worth getting really good light above where you're using knives-especially if you're as clumsy as me!!!

PasturesNew

With regard to the idea given above about hidden strip lighting. Lighting like that can make a kitchen look really nice and cosy, left on in the evenings if you pop in/out of the kitchen a lot.

You can get low energy tiny halogen lights, saw them on TV the other week. They might be similar to these: http://www.yourwelcome.co.uk/acatalog/Halogen_Lamps.html

As I don't have a house I just heard it and didn't make notes.