Replacing a kitchen nowadays is incredibly expensive. So what can you do if your budget won’t extend to new units and appliances but your kitchen is still in serious need of a serious makeover? Well start at the finish, in other words focus initially, not on what your kitchen looks like now, but on the sorts of kitchens that you would like to emulate. Look in magazines and showrooms for ideas and inspiration.
You’re not attempting to imitate any specific kitchen, but rather to determine what effects are possible and what really leaps out at you. One thing you cannot fail to notice though is how all drop-dead-gorgeous kitchens have 2 things in common – lack of clutter and great lighting.
That’s not to say they’re in any way minimalistic; there’s a world of difference between a kitchen that is befittingly appointed with well placed utensils and decorative features, and one that looks bare. But you won’t find yesterday’s newspaper, items that have perfectly good cupboard space for them, and stuff that just got put down and left there. Whatever is on show is there by design.
On the lighting side of things, step outside the kitchen and into a TV or film set. The point is that these appear to the viewer to be, say, a smart office, or a pleasant bedroom or whatever the designer wants you to see. In reality they are usually cheap chipboard with a hasty paint job – the lighting is what makes them appear so much more. Apply this logic to your kitchen.
So that’s plan then – seriously tidy up, lay things out so they look good and enhance the appearance, and fix the lighting. Now depending on how long ago your kitchen was last refitted and on how adventurous you were feeling, there’s a fair chance that the kitchen lighting available today is a world away from what you already have.
Do you, for instance, have pendant lighting that sits above an island, table or breakfast bar? Adding these is a real easy and inexpensive way to update and lift the appearance of the place. Even if you already have this kind of lighting, you can bring in a more contemporary look simply by replacing them with more modern ones.
The key to using lighting to the greatest effect in a kitchen is not, as in the past, to rely on a few main lights, but to install numerous smaller lights that each serve a specific purpose. Modern products such as lightweight LED strip lighting make it really easy to add accent lighting (to plinths or toe-kick boards for instance) or extra task lighting (locate them under wall units).
LED lights emit a bright, clean light that works especially well in kitchens with their many reflective surfaces. By reflecting LED light from walls and tiles you can produce intriguing ambient light effects not possible with incandescent bulbs. Their bright, focused nature plus the fact they use up little power and emit little heat also makes them well suited as substitutes for halogen spotlights.
If this article interested you then try these additional articles to find out much more about kitchen island lights and pendant lighting for the kitchen.