Lighting is the most under-planned part of most kitchen projects, and the one that makes the biggest difference to how the finished room feels.
We have seen beautiful kitchens made ordinary by a grid of downlights, and modest kitchens made lovely by thoughtful light. The difference costs very little — but it has to be decided before the ceiling goes up and the plaster goes on.
One light source is never enough
The common approach is a regular grid of ceiling spots and nothing else. It produces flat, shadowless light that is fine at eight in the morning and faintly depressing at eight at night. It also puts the light behind you, so you chop vegetables in your own shadow.
Good kitchen lighting uses four layers, each doing a different job, each on its own switch or dimmer.
1. Task light
Light on the surfaces where you actually work. Under-cabinet lighting along the worktop is the obvious one and the most useful thing you can fit — it puts light in front of you rather than behind.
Run it close to the front edge of the wall unit rather than at the back, or you light the splashback and leave the worktop dim. On an island with no units above, a pendant or a well-placed spot does the same job.
2. Ambient light
The general wash that lets you walk through the room and see. This is what ceiling spots are genuinely good for — just fewer of them than you think, positioned deliberately rather than in a grid.
A useful rule: place them to light the walls and the fronts of the cabinetry, not the middle of the floor. Lit walls make a room feel larger and brighter than lit floors.
3. Accent light
The layer that turns a kitchen into a room in the evening. Lighting inside glazed cabinets, a strip beneath the island plinth, a lit niche behind the hob, or a glow along the top of tall units.
None of it is necessary. All of it is what makes a kitchen look like the photographs people fall in love with. On a dimmer, these alone are often enough light for a quiet evening.
4. Decorative light
Pendants over an island or a dining table — the jewellery of the room. Choose them for how they look both lit and unlit, since in daylight they are simply objects hanging in the space.
Hang them roughly 700–800mm above the worktop: low enough to feel intimate, high enough to see across. With a run of three, space them evenly along the island rather than cramming them centrally.
Warmth matters more than brightness
Colour temperature is the detail most people never consider and immediately notice. Around 2700K is warm and domestic. 4000K is crisp and commercial. In a kitchen that doubles as a dining and sitting space, cool white light will make it feel like a workplace however beautiful the cabinetry.
Keep every lamp in the room the same temperature. Mixing warm and cool is more obvious than you would expect and never looks intentional.
Put it on dimmers and plan it early
Separate circuits for each layer, all dimmable, is the single best upgrade you can specify. One room then does bright and practical at breakfast and soft and calm at nine in the evening.
Crucially, all of this needs deciding before first fix. Adding a circuit afterwards means chasing walls and patching ceilings. It is the cheapest thing to get right at the planning stage and the most expensive to add later.
Every display at our Basildon showroom is lit the way we would light your kitchen, which is the easiest way to see the difference. Browse our bespoke kitchens or book a design consultation.
