Much more than simply lighting a room so you can see, lighting can be used to highlight a room’s artistic focal points, create an air of added elegance, and give needed extra light in niche spaces. A skilled interior designer knows of the three types of light that work together in a room to create a balanced, well-lit atmosphere. Here is a brief summary of each light type, along with ways that you incorporate them in your kitchen.
Ambient Lighting
This is the type of light that comes to mind for most people when they think about interior lighting. Ambient lighting is used to light a space overall and is usually the first type of light people consider when creating a lighting plan for a room. This light can come from recessed lighting, track lights, a chandelier, ceiling or wall mounted fixtures, or any combination of these. Kitchens commonly make use of recessed and track lighting, as well as ceiling mounted fixtures over a kitchen island or dining table.
Task Lighting
This type of lighting is used to provide extra needed light in niche spaces for accomplishing various tasks such as reading or completing paperwork at a desk. It often remains off for the majority of the time and is turned on only when directly needed. Some examples of everyday tasks in the kitchen that might call for this type of lighting include food preparation at a stove, cutting meat and vegetables, and working with food at the sink. In a kitchen, this needed lighting is most commonly supplied by recessed or track lights under cabinets and by lighting built into a range hood.
Accent Lighting
Accent lighting is a type of lighting often not considered for kitchens but that can add an unexpected artistic element to your kitchen’s lighting. Accent lighting is often used to highlight unique works of art in the home, such as paintings, sculptures, houseplants, and other art pieces. While the kitchen doesn’t typically house these types of things, accent lighting can be used to draw focus to pots and dishes in upper display cabinets with glass windows, or even to textured walls of brick or stone that might be in your kitchen. In fact, task lighting installed under cabinets can even double as accent lighting when it happens to draw focus to a beautiful backsplash or textured wall between the cabinets and countertops.
A truly great kitchen lighting design plan will be mapped out with cabinets and preparation spaces in mind. If you’re looking to create a well-balanced and artistic lighting design plan for your kitchen, there’s no better time than now to invest in new cabinets. Cabinet Corner offers a beautiful selection of factory direct and ready-to-assemble cabinets. For a look at what we have to offer, take a look at our products page.
