The one place in your home where proper wall lighting is more important than most rooms is your kitchen. This is the room sharp knives, hot stoves, ovens and boiling liquids are an every day routine. Although lighting is important in every room of your home, the kitchen is the room we perform tasks that are potentially dangerous if we don't have the proper lighting to adequately light up our food preparation work areas.
So now you say, "How do I determine the correct wall mounted lighting in order to perform my daily preparation of meals?" I am glad you asked that question and I am here to provide you with a few suggestions in order to make your kitchen wall mounted lighting choices targeted to you and your cooking habits.
So let us start from the beginning. Take a good look around your kitchen. Now decide what kitchen tasks will be performed in certain sections of your kitchen. Determine how this new wall lighting will fit in with the overall lighting of the kitchen. In other words where in your kitchen do you feel that wall lighting is needed?
Next you should measure the wall space where you plant to install the wall mounted lighting fixture/s. This will give you an idea of what type of lighting fixture to use, whether the fixture is a single lamp fixture such as florescent or multiple lamps such as wall sconces.
To determine how difficult the installation might be, you will need to know if you are replacing fixtures that are already there or installing lighting fixtures on the wall for the first time.
Now you should think about what type of light bulb is appropriate for the kitchen. Here you have multiple choices. Your choices are incandescent bulbs (the old standard) with a wide variety of wattages for how bright you would like the light to be. You can also choose clear or frosted incandescent bulbs. The incandescent bulbs come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. With the relatively new CFL bulbs you have a small selection of wattages and shapes, but there are more shapes and sizes becoming available all the time. The advantage of CFL bulbs is that they use less electricity to light, so they will be a larger investment to purchase them as compared to incandescent bulbs, but CFL bulbs last much longer than incandescent light bulbs and in the long run you will save money on your electric bill which will more than pay for your CFL bulbs over time.
What you have to do now is measure the kitchen wall that you will be installing the wall mounted lighting. By measuring the wall you will get a good idea of how many and what type of lighting fixture/s you will use to light up the area. Make sure you have the correct lighting to perform the work involved in that particular part of the kitchen. Whether it is preparing food or washing dishes, the proper lighting will always make the job easier to perform.
The type of kitchen wall mounted lighting fixture you use is dependent on how much light you want to expose to the area. You need to project enough light to make your kitchen work areas a comfortable working environment. Too much light will be as uncomfortable as not enough light. You can choose what direction you would like your kitchen wall lighting to aim. You may want to aim your wall lighting downward to project lighting directly on the work area. To do this you can use wall scone lighting with opaque lamp shades aimed in a downward position.
To add indirect kitchen wall mounted lighting, use wall sconces that have opaque lamp shades that aim upward. This will light up the part of your kitchen you intended to brighten up and at the same time brighten up the entire room.
By visiting a lighting store you will also want to experiment with the different lighting directions and lamp shades such as clear, translucent or opaque. You want to be sure that your lighting decision is something that will best fit your needs, so take your time and explore the possibilities. The lighting consultant or sales person in a store dedicated to lighting can inform you on the latest industry innovations.
Try to stay within your budget. It is always better to choose two lesser expensive lighting fixtures instead of one expensive lighting fixture when the wall area calls for two fixtures. Shop online and brick and mortar because there are good deals to be found in both arenas.
If you are replacing fixtures that are already there, be sure to turn off the circuit breaker so your wiring job can be performed safely. If the job requires running new wiring to the wall and you are not an experienced electrician, then contact an electrical contractor in your area to do the job for you.
Only you know if your kitchen wall mounted lighting is accent lighting or task lighting. If you choose, you can have both of these features with the same wall lighting fixtures. Let your creativity light up the room.
