Sally Storey, Design Director of John Cullen Lighting kindly offers her top tips for lighting your kitchen:

Of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen has the widest range of functions and needs the most versatile lighting scheme. It needs to provide a bright, general light for the day – especially in dark kitchens.

To create an intimate and more atmospheric light for evening meals, it is essential that you can control the mood with dimmers.

Exposed light fittings tend to collect the grime which cooking creates; so, if possible, opt for recessed or semi-recessed fittings.

In areas where you do the most work, you should aim to create shadow-free task lighting. Under cupboard lighting is ideal for lighting work surfaces, use small compact fluorescents or LED Under Cupboard Lights.

A down-light, such as the Polestar, gives a warm glow to the smallest galley kitchen and can be used to great effect to bounce light off fitted cupboards, accentuating colour and helping to create a feeling of space. To be energy efficient, use the AmibDim LED Polestar, which is 8 watts.

Always light the centre of an island unit with recessed down-lights, or simple decorative pendants. To make it easier to control the mood, put them on a separate circuit to your perimeter lights.
For mood lighting, LED Cazalla lights built into the plinth of the central island will provide a gentle wash of light across the floor. If the unit is on legs, use LED Contour underneath it, so that the island appears to float.

Individual LED Footlights and LED Eyelid Under-cupboard Lights are a good way to light shelves. They are a particularly useful solution when it isn’t possible to fit a recessed light, or the shelves are under a skylight.

For high ceilings, using up-lighters on top of the kitchen cabinets works well – adding to the general light, while reducing the number of down-lights needed.

It is perfectly possible to change an area from being a great environment for working in, to an intimate setting for supper at the touch of a button. The more circuits your lights are on the more control you will have.

The key to any lighting scheme is the design. When it comes to positioning your lights (down-lights in particular), forget about grids and symmetry and think about the key areas where light is really needed.

Finally, remember that the best time to install a new lighting scheme, is before you start to redecorate and don’t be afraid to get a lighting designer to help.

• Light fittings used in our featured kitchen are, Metal Cube £98, LEDEyelid Under Cupboard Light, £53 & Contour £131 per metre.

To view more inspirational John Cullen lighting schemes, please visit the website.

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