The hallmark of almost all good kitchen lighting designs is the use of numerous light sources rather than relying on say just a couple of bright fluorescent strip lights. The reason is simple; kitchens are fundamentally work areas and require task lighting which typically needs to be placed between you and the items you are working with. If the main lighting in the room is located in the middle of the ceiling then you invariably find yourself working in your own shadow.
The solution most commonly adopted is to cover the ceiling with banks of down lights to create a suitable amount of ambient light and to then locally target key zones such as hobs and worktops with directional task lighting and incorporate some amount of decorative and/or accent lighting to lift other areas and add a touch of sparkle. Kitchen task lighting can of course be quite decorative in its own right since it often reflects off wall tiles and accents shiny kitchen utensils and appliances.
In line with general lighting design principles, it is best if possible to ensure that the various lighting elements (task, ambient, decorative/accent) are separately switch-able and in the case of ambient lights also dimmable. This allows for the ability to configure the kitchen for different purposes and to create a number of different looks and moods.
The purpose of ambient light is essentially to provide sufficient background illumination to "support" the other types of lighting and show them off to their best effect. Mostly people don't notice ambient light and tend to assume that lighting design rests on the more showy lighting features. It's not unlike the bass track in a song - you only realize how important it is to the overall structure of the sound when it's either too loud or too soft, but when it's just right then everything else gets the credit.
The typical modern kitchen lighting layout works perfectly well in terms of lighting design, but it has a couple of major drawbacks, mainly because in order to get the kind of crisp light needed in a kitchen the default option has become halogen lamps. These are hugely inefficient and operate at extremely high temperatures. Well over 90% of the electricity you pay good money for to light your kitchen is wasted as heat which itself presents a fire risk to any material located in close proximity.
But there is a simple solution that delivers the same excellent light quality but costs a fraction to run and runs cool to the touch (touch a halogen bulb only if you want third degree burns). We're talking of course about LED lighting which is now easily available as retrofit replacements for MR16 halogen spot lights in both the 12v GU5.3 and main GU10 formats, and as LED strip lighting for use under cabinets and accenting cupboards and plinths etc.
Replacing conventional MR16 spots with LEDs is pretty much a matter of pulling out the old and inserting the new, but with the proviso that quite a few low voltage LED lights do require constant voltage transformers (also called LED drivers) rather than common or garden variable voltage electronic transformers, but on the plus side you can usually run quite a few LED lights off a single transformer.
LED lights on the whole appear slightly sharper than their incandescent cousins which can result in a slightly harsh look. An easy way to control light appearance is to aim at different surfaces; for example even the most crisp LED spot light can be made to render a warm glow by reflecting the light off for example terracotta tiles, or natural wood or simply a warmly colored wall. Likewise, you can create a highly dramatic look by bouncing LED light onto materials such as enamel, steel and granite all of which tend to be commonly found in kitchens.
