LED Kitchen Lighting

Look carefully at most stylish kitchen lighting designs and you will notice a surprising amount of individual lighting elements deployed. Kitchen lighting needs all manner of different types of lighting for the many discrete zones found in a kitchen - each with their own special requirements. Just about the least effective way to light a kitchen is using a few bright fluorescent tubes mounted somewhere on the ceiling - it simply looks ghastly and you will also develop permanent "standing in your own shadow" syndrome.

Many people opt then to install a bank of halogen down lighters spread out across the kitchen ceiling and put in specialist lighting to illuminate worktops and hobs. Which works well enough from a design perspective, but halogen lamps are: a) very, very hot; b) have short life spans; and c) are very expensive to run.

Which presents a massive opportunity for LED kitchen lighting which delivers pretty much everything that halogen lamps do but without all the down sides (LEDs run cool (and look cool), live longer than elephants, and cost a pittance to run). Better than, all you have to do is replace existing halogen spots with LED spotlights.

If you are using mains powered (i.e. GU10 format) lights then that's it. You're done. For 12v lighting you additionally need to replace 12v transformers with one (or more, depending on the number of lights involved) constant voltage 12v LED driver. And then you're done.

Could this get any simpler? I think not.

The three main things to bear in mind when buying LED spotlights are: luminosity (brightness); colour temperature (how cool/blue or warm/yellow the light looks); and beam angle. Aim to get each of these factors as close as you can to your original halogen lamps and your new LED kitchen lighting should prove an immediate success.

Another vital factor that determines how any artificial light appears is the surface it shines on. For a warm effect, aim LED spot lights at warm colored areas (terracotta tiles, natural wood or just a warmly painted wall). To create eye-catching effects, try using blue LEDs directed at suitable surfaces - blue LEDs reflected off blues and greens and materials such as granite and steel can look stunning.

Use LED lights with varying characteristics in combination with different textures and colors to obtain a range of dramatic effects in different zones throughout the kitchen. The possibilities are practically endless, which can of course be a problem unto itself. Sound advice for seekers after stylish LED kitchen lighting is to keep it simple and go with just one or two ideas - you'll be surprised how stunning even a small amount of LED kitchen lighting can look.