Hello all.
We're redecorating our kitchen and I wanted to pick your brains regarding lighting.
Previously, the whole room was lit by one 4' fluorescent strip light, with a 58w bulb. We're having the ceiling replaced, and for the moment we're just using a floor-standing uplighter with a 200w energy-saving halogen bulb (supposedly equivalent to 300w), which while not quite bright enough for long-term use, gives quite a cosy atmosphere and enough light if you're just making a brew or sat at the breakfast bar watching TV. This made us realise how bright the old strip light was - too bright and a bit clinical sometimes (depending on what you're doing, obviously).
So with a good opportunity now that the ceiling is down, we thought we would try and make the lighting scheme more flexible, so that we can have enough light as is needed for whatever it is we happen to be doing, rather than just one source of light either on or off as it was before.
Here's a rough layout of our kitchen:
The idea was to put downlighters* at the points marked by an X. The reason for the red line down the middle is to show that the lighting would be split into two zones. For some reason there is a light switch at both ends of our kitchen which could both turn the old strip light on or off. So I asked my cousin Ben (a sparky) if he could split it up and put the lights on the left side above the breakfast bar area on one switch, and the other three lights on the other switch - he said not a problem.
*I know downlighters don't always get a lot of love around here, but bear with me! The left zone of the kitchen doesn't really need a lot of light because all we do there is sit at the breakfast bar and watch TV, have a brew or eat a sarnie, so a couple of downlighters would probably suffice.
The right zone would need more light, which downlighters might not be able to manage alone, but we were thinking of getting a couple of small under-cabinet strip lights that we saw in ikea that gave off a great amount of light for their size. Here's a pic to show where they would be fitted (marked with an X):
Personally I think the combination of downlighters in conjunction with under-cabinet lights would provide more than enough light but wanted a second opinion. The other options would be to have the two downllighters in the left zone, but instead of the three downlighters in the right zone, maybe have one larger fluorescent light, something along these lines. Or maybe a couple of larger pl downlighters instead of three smaller ones.
I'm not set on anything really, just trying to be logical and find the right combination. Any feedback is welcomed.
P.S. does anyone have any experience of the Collingwood FireLED range? I think these would be perfect for the left zone, but don't know much about them.
We're redecorating our kitchen and I wanted to pick your brains regarding lighting.
Previously, the whole room was lit by one 4' fluorescent strip light, with a 58w bulb. We're having the ceiling replaced, and for the moment we're just using a floor-standing uplighter with a 200w energy-saving halogen bulb (supposedly equivalent to 300w), which while not quite bright enough for long-term use, gives quite a cosy atmosphere and enough light if you're just making a brew or sat at the breakfast bar watching TV. This made us realise how bright the old strip light was - too bright and a bit clinical sometimes (depending on what you're doing, obviously).
So with a good opportunity now that the ceiling is down, we thought we would try and make the lighting scheme more flexible, so that we can have enough light as is needed for whatever it is we happen to be doing, rather than just one source of light either on or off as it was before.
Here's a rough layout of our kitchen:
The idea was to put downlighters* at the points marked by an X. The reason for the red line down the middle is to show that the lighting would be split into two zones. For some reason there is a light switch at both ends of our kitchen which could both turn the old strip light on or off. So I asked my cousin Ben (a sparky) if he could split it up and put the lights on the left side above the breakfast bar area on one switch, and the other three lights on the other switch - he said not a problem.
*I know downlighters don't always get a lot of love around here, but bear with me! The left zone of the kitchen doesn't really need a lot of light because all we do there is sit at the breakfast bar and watch TV, have a brew or eat a sarnie, so a couple of downlighters would probably suffice.
The right zone would need more light, which downlighters might not be able to manage alone, but we were thinking of getting a couple of small under-cabinet strip lights that we saw in ikea that gave off a great amount of light for their size. Here's a pic to show where they would be fitted (marked with an X):
Personally I think the combination of downlighters in conjunction with under-cabinet lights would provide more than enough light but wanted a second opinion. The other options would be to have the two downllighters in the left zone, but instead of the three downlighters in the right zone, maybe have one larger fluorescent light, something along these lines. Or maybe a couple of larger pl downlighters instead of three smaller ones.
I'm not set on anything really, just trying to be logical and find the right combination. Any feedback is welcomed.
P.S. does anyone have any experience of the Collingwood FireLED range? I think these would be perfect for the left zone, but don't know much about them.
