Lighting is a vital component of a kitchen to ensure that it's as safe and functional as possible. While the whole kitchen needs to have even lighting, the island is a place where you can take it to the next level by doing something decorative. If you're renovating your kitchen and not sure what type of decorative light will work for your space, we have put together 5 ideas for your to consider.
1 | Even spread pendants
The most well-known way to add feature lighting over your island is to do a series of pendants. Pendants come in various sizes, shapes, styles and finishes to suit the style of the kitchen and size of the island bench. The most important part is to ensure that the pendants selected provide even bright light over the island with no dark spots.
2 | Single point pendant/s
If the design of your island has one end as a clear focal point, then you may prefer to concentrate the decorative lighting over the one area only. You could do this by placing one large pendant there or you may prefer to do a cluster of smaller pendants. It's important to ensure you have LED downlights or another subtle form of lighting over the rest of the island bench as well, to ensure sufficient task lighting for cooking.
3 | Linear pendants
Linear pendants have become incredibly popular over the past few years. Linear pendants have two ceiling mounting points which supports a series of lights or a bar with an LED strip. Linear pendants can feel less busy and more modern than having multiple single pendants - particularly if adding a simple bar linear light. The one downside of these lights is the length as they generally come in standard sizes, which may not suit a very long island unless it's custom made to a larger size.
4 | Surface mounted LED lights
Another type of decorative light that we have seen on the rise is the surface mounted LED light. While it's more on the subtle side of feature lighting, surface mounted LEDs can provide just the right amount of feature to a modern and/or minimal design. They come in a few different colours and lengths, and you can even get some that are ribbed for extra texture. These can be spread evenly over the island or in clusters of 2 or 3. However, it is again important to ensure there are no shadowed areas over the island bench.
5 | Track Lighting
Track lighting consists of a track placed on the ceiling with a number of spot lights attached to it. They are more of an industrial style but can suit modern style homes as well. The best part is that they are highly customisable to the length of the track, how many lights you need and where you'd like them located. The spot lights also swivel so that you can point them in different directions as needed. They generally come in chrome, stainless steel, black and white only as standard, but you may be able to find some specialty finishes for a higher cost.
I hope these ideas have been helpful! If you want to find out more about how we can help you with your project, get in contact with us below:
Have a wonderful week!
Nina xx