Top Tip from interior designer Elaine McHale

Lighting should be a key consideration in every room, in particular the kitchen.

Of all the rooms in the house, the kitchen has the widest range of functions and needs the most versatile lighting scheme. Good lighting is about creating layers and it's important you think about how a space is used. The key is variety and to consider each of the individual areas in a room so the lighting creates invisible walls. For example, open-plan living-eating- cooking spaces need lighting as if they were three different rooms.

There are three main categories of kitchen lighting: ambient, task and accent/decorative lighting. Ideally you should aim to assign each of these groups to its own circuit so the various elements can be individually controlled and blended with each other as required.

Ambient light sets the overall background lighting level. The best form of ambient light for a kitchen is generally recessed down lights and like all ambient lighting these should be set on dimmer switches to control the mood level.

Focused task lighting that doesn't create shadows is important. LED under cabinet lighting is ideal as this runs cool and costs very little.       

Accent and decorative and lights are used to add interest and highlight particular features. Low heat LED strip lights and spot lights are made for this since they are easy to install pretty much anywhere and can be set very close to objects or even into surfaces.

For more on home and kitchen interiors please contact interior designer
Elaine McHale on 0876102428 or email info@homeinteriors.ie