Articles By Syndicated Columnist
Dan Thomas
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Improvement Inside And Out
Kitchen Lighting
Have you ever noticed that your kitchen is so much more
than just
a place to prepare meals and eat. The kitchen has evolved into a place where
kids do homework, we watch television, pay the bills, read, do puzzles and small
children will play so we can keep our eyes on them. For these reasons and more
it is very important that your kitchen lighting be flexible and adequate for all
your family needs.
Smaller kitchens will do with a light in the center of the room. However
today kitchens are being built larger and single kitchen lighting fixture will
not do.
When you are designing your kitchen lighting you should start with the
general light. The general light is the light that will be used most often.
You see a lot of recessed kitchen lightening which is a great way to
provide general lighting in a way that looks neat and clean. You want to make
sure there is good lighting where the tasks will be done, such as counters,
tables and islands. When using sharp knives or dealing with hot things you
want the best of lighting. If you design your kitchen lighting to feature
these areas the rest of the room should get its share of this light as well. A
rule of thumb to remember is to get the kitchen lighting close enough to your
work area without creating a shadow from your body. If you keep the light to
far away from the counter for example you are sure to have shadows from your
body and that can cause problems. Do not overlook your nooks when designing
your kitchen lighting. Remember your kids might be doing there homework there
or perhaps you will sit there and do your bills.
If you have an island in your kitchen try 2 or 3 pendants in a straight
line. This can give a stunning effect.
Task lighting is the light you get directly over your counters and sink.
One or two small recessed lights with a switch of its own is both useful and
looks good.
You can light your counters with under the cabinet kitchen lighting.. this
is usually done with fluorescent fixtures. You can get a very nice effect if
you use low voltage linear track. You can dim then and provide a very nice
light to the counters. Xenon burns cooler and have a longer bulb life than
most of the other halogen light fixtures.
Okay so now you have your general kitchen lighting and also your task
lighting and the last thing is your accent lighting.
Some people who have space above the cabinets will use kitchen lighting
such as rope light on top of the cabinets to help make their kitchen unique.
