So here’s the deal with lighting. When the lighting is perfect even the most normal builder grade spaces look good. When the lighting is bad even the most perfect rooms look terrible. Lighting is a very important component to any space. A good balance of natural light, lighting levels and light colors can change a room from blahhh to WOW! Ben and I considered a ton of options for our Phase 1 kitchen renovation. Do we keep the lights in the same place? Do we add lights and try to anticipate the locations that we would want them for the extreme kitchen renovation down the road? Should we add under cabinet lighting? In the end a new look and budget were the deciding factors. We decided that we couldn’t predict what our future needs would be so we are going to live in the moment and work with what we have and not relocate the electrical boxes or add any light fixtures.
When we moved in the existing kitchen lighting consisted of a really low hanging pendant that Ben would hit his head on, a boob light in the middle of the room, and a recessed exposed compact fluorescent fixture above the sink. These fixtures did not put out nearly enough light. It didn’t help that the walls and the cabinets were painted tan and dark brown.
We knew we would have to up the foot candles. Foot candles are a measurement of the recommended levels of lighting required to perform certain acts like walking, reading, using the computer, and anything else that requires light. They can vary from area to area in your house. Example: Working with a knife in your kitchen will require a lot more light than reading a book in bed.
Since we repainted the ceiling white, painted the kitchen cabinets white and the walls a light grey we already boosted the quantity of bright objects that the light can bounce off of and increased the natural light levels.
The first light we tackled was the recessed light above the sink. This was an old style “can” light with an exposed compact fluorescent bulb. Since we knew we had to keep the fixture because it was stuck in the ceiling, we looked for something to update it. Ben and I were wandering around the lighting section at our local big box hardware store and we stumbled upon the prefect light. Thank you endcaps! This perfect light update is a new LED light that screwed into a compact fluorescent recessed can light. An exact fit! Affordable! Genius!
The second light was the boob light in the center of the room. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the boob light it’s a usually cheap dome light with a rod in the center that holds up the glass dome by screwing in a finial. Hence, when you look up at it it looks like a boob. That’s a technical term by the way. This was a 1 bulb fixture that cast a ton of shadows. Since we took an oath not to replace or move any of the existing electrical boxes we were looking for a light with multiple sources that could access different parts of the kitchen and create a nice glow. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of track lighting. We have a halogen bulb track light that was part of the house when we moved in located in the living room. The halogen bulbs keep burning out.
We started looking for an LED track light that was affordable. IKEA wins again! This fixture is stainless steel with LED bulbs that can be adjusted. There are 5 bulbs that cost just about the same as the fixture. We were able to install this light for under $100 and point the lights to bounce off of the cabinets and create the glow we are looking for.
Last up, the replacement for the light that Ben hit his head on. We searched far and wide for this light. I changed my mind a ton of times and almost purchased lights a few times before settling on this oversized mid century inspired globe light from Wayfair. I have always looked for a reason to buy a globe light. This globe is 14” in diameter. It’s BIG. BIIIIGGGGG. I thought it might be too big but my hope is that we can put a morning coffee seating station/storage area with a built in bench under the light/windows which will help anchor the fixture.
Now our kitchen has great lighting. It’s not perfect but it is 1000 times better than before. Replacing the 3 fixtures, changing the cabinets from chocolate milk to white, painting the walls a light grey, and repainting the ceiling white ridiculously brightened up the kitchen. I didn’t even realize how cave like it felt until we started making the changes. Now we have plenty of bright walls and fixtures to bounce the light around.
Check out the house tour for before and current pics of the kitchen!
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