Top Under-Cabinet Lighting Ideas
The right light can work wonders in your kitchen. When placed correctly and chosen carefully, it enables you to be your best when you’re chopping, sautéing, cleaning, or even sharing a meal with your loved ones. However, one opportunity often missed by home builders and even homeowners is lighting installed under your cabinets to help focus brightness where you need it most. So, how do you know what is best? There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so read on for some tips for you to consider.
Best under-cabinet lighting practices
Under-cabinet lighting is a form of task lighting, providing a well-lit workspace on your countertop or stovetop. You want it to make your life easier when you’re prepping meals, for example, without eclipsing the overall ambient light in the kitchen. Its bright and cheery glow also contributes to the overall atmosphere of the space by creating dimensionality and can even be used to spotlight cookbooks or knick-knacks that you have on your countertop.
Why under the cabinet?
There are two main reasons. First, it keeps you from having to clutter your countertop with lamps or other light sources. Second, because it is oriented to point downward, it provides focused light, where it’s helpful and can easily be switched off when not in use.
How easy is it to install?
Some under-cabinet lighting options come as a complete package with an independent switch incorporated and can be installed DIY; others are installed into your cabinets, hard-wired, and turned on with a wall switch. The latter gives a sleeker, more stylish look but will require professional installation.
Location, location, location
The usefulness of your under-cabinet lighting depends entirely on its placement. You want to place them where shadows are greatest but also where their bulbs don’t glare out into the room.
Types of under-cabinet lighting
Mounted under-cabinet lights
Mounted lights come in a variety of lengths – 7.5, 18, 24, or 30 inches – choose the right one on your cabinets’ width. They typically emit light that has around 3,000 Kelvins, which is a color temperature that comes closer to natural daylight, providing clear bright light to your countertop. Our Glyde Undercabinet light, from the Architectural Collection comes in five convenient lengths, with a standard on/off switch and color temperature options.
LED puck lights
Puck lights are smaller, typically around 3 inches in size, and oval or round in shape (like a hockey puck). Think of them as a spotlight for your counters, to light up areas shadowed by the cabinet overhang, including nooks and crannies. They are simple to mount if attached using a removable method like Velcro, they can be moved from place to place. Puck lights are sometimes freestanding and turned on and off by hand, although they can also be recessed into the underside of your cabinets and hard-wired into your electrical system.
Creative ways to use accent lighting under cabinets
Adding to ambiance with color
In addition to providing task lighting for workspaces, these lights can also add to the ambiance of your kitchen. You can choose from a variety of bulb temperatures to enhance the colors of stone or tile in your backsplash and countertop – bulbs that are 1,200 Kelvins (warm) are about the color temperature of a candle, while 5,600 Kelvins (cool) bulbs output light that is equal to daylight. Even without a colored bulb, warmer light will have a red, orange, or yellow tint to it, while cold light has a bluish cast.
What is the overall aesthetic of your kitchen? If it is classic and traditional, you might want to use a warmer light that casts an amber glow. If it is minimalist and modern, you might want to go with a cooler light temperature.
Complementing the overall atmosphere
Softer LED hues can complement the overall atmosphere of the kitchen, and still be bright enough to light your countertops. But some people prefer a brightness nearing daylight for their kitchen tasks. You can even install a dimmer on these lights, so you can ramp up the brightness during cook prep, then turn it down when you sit down to eat with family or friends, so the under-cabinet lights function as accents.
The aesthetic impact of hidden lighting fixtures
When installing under-cabinet lighting, many people opt for fixtures that are concealed from the eye, for a streamlined look. Choose slim, low-profile fixtures that blend with your decor. Also, keep in mind that under-cabinet lighting is always working hand in hand with other light in the room. Using a concept called “layering,” consider how this task lighting interacts with windows that let daylight in, the overhead light in your kitchen, as well as any wall lights or lamps that you have in the room, and make sure that they all play nicely with each other.
Whatever you choose, at Visual Comfort we’re here to help make sure that your kitchen is as functional as it is bright and beautiful.