Having kitchen/diner redecorated - How many spotlights?

edwardcasbon1

edwardcasbon1

edwardcasbon1

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Cambs, UK
Hi all,

We're having our kitchen and dining room redecorated and as part of that having a new kitchen fitted, ceilings skimmed and spotlights installed.

The installer has asked how many spotlights we need. To be honest I don't have an idea. The 2 rooms are being converted to one (wall in the middle removed and ceiling supported using an RSJ). They're evenly sized rooms of about 3m x 3.5m each.

Has anyone else had to work out how many spotlights to install, and if so, how did you, and did you get it right?

Many thanks for any help.

Edward
 
The answer is lots and have them dimmable or able to switch some lights off if the room is big enough.

I’d have 6 in a lounge area, but we’ve got 9 in our kitchen of similar floor size (it’s in the dark corner of an open plan room) and that’s not too many.
 
Keep in mind the wattage, the cone throw and colour (temperature) will affect how much light you perceive.

Also consider lighting under and over cabinets - from a usability POV if your spots are behind you and you're chopping at a work surface and casting a shadow - it's annoying.

My advice - go to a decent lighting store and ask someone - or - go to as many new build houses as you can and check what they have in the ceiling and what that gives.
 
I know spotlights are all the rage but having had them in a kitchen, I'd never have them again. Just not ideal for a working environment in my opinion.

I guess it's different in a kitchen diner as you probably want something that looks nice rather than just being functional, but I've replaced my spots with an LED batten and it's much more practical. New kitchen is having LED panels.
 
We had a similar thing last year, similar sized rooms - 9 spots in the kitchen and 6 in the dining room, with under-cupboard strip lights, they're on a separate dimmer and Alexa controllable.

If we were doing it again, even though there are large windows in the room, I probably would have gone for either higher wattage bulbs or more of them
 
Plan the kitchen, put them over the counter tops no matter how stupid it looks, it's a pain washing up and chopping or cooking with shadows. Dining room not so important you can space them out so they look good.

I've got a dozen in my kitchen on two circuits so not dimmable as such but half on and full on, works quite well.
 
the_r_sole said:
Go for big recessed led panels rather than downlights, having lots of individual downlights always looks terrible
Click to expand...

That's what I'll be doing. Obviously the standard sized 600x600 are more readily available but I'm looking at two 1200x300's as I think they'll give a better spread of light down the main runs of worktop either side. Under cabinet strips for task lighting and some dimmable over cabinet ones for general background when we aren't cooking.
 
paintguy said:
That's what I'll be doing. Obviously the standard sized 600x600 are more readily available but I'm looking at two 1200x300's as I think they'll give a better spread of light down the main runs of worktop either side. Under cabinet strips for task lighting and some dimmable over cabinet ones for general background when we aren't cooking.
Click to expand...
you don't even need to go that big, you can get them down to 200mm dia panels and they give a lot more useful light than 100mm spots
 
We've got an open plan kitchen/dining/living area and we've got 3 sets of spots in each 'zone' the kitchen has 6, dining 6 and living space 8 and it seems ideal to us. I can't remember what type they are though i just know they're warm white LED types and they seem to have a very nice spread, they don't seem to be very directional at all which is ideal.

Our room is 8m x 5m, we don't have any kitchen wall units and as long as the spots are set kind of in line with the edge of the worktop you won't have an issue working in your shadow when chopping etc. We do have a double pendant light hanging over our breakfast bar/peninsula which is kind of in the middle of the room which we use in the evenings along with a big floor lamp instead of the spots as a softer more relaxing light.
 
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