What Type of Lighting Works Best For Your Kitchen Renovation?

Kitchen renovations garner some of the most promising return on investments, but there are a lot of important decisions to make that can make your kitchen renos seem daunting.

What kind of back-splash; tile or metal? Should I go with a butcher block counter-top or granite? Natural wood cabinets or white-enameled? One of the most important decisions when designing your new kitchen is what type of lighting you should install.

There are two standard options to choose from when remodeling your new kitchen. Recessed lighting is a fairly common upgrade to many custom kitchens. Updated track lighting is often chosen in many modern kitchen remodels. Below we will discuss the advantages, disadvantages and differences between recessed and track lighting.

Recessed Lighting

Recessed lights, otherwise knows as can lights, are installed between the ceiling beams in your kitchen. The light bulb is surrounded by a cylinder, the can, typically made of metal or plastic. This keeps the light focused downward only. After the can is mounted and wired to a junction box and a light switch by an electrician, it is hidden by either dry wall or plaster and the finishing touch of adding a decorative ring is added. There are a wide range of options to choose from depending on your budget and overall look you are going for.

Advantages of Recessed Lighting

Kitchen spaces appear more open without lamps taking up ceiling space.
A direct downward facing light makes it easy to work at a counter-top or sink.
Low maintenance and less dusting with no exposed globe or support fixtures.

Disadvantages of Recessed Lighting

Lights are not able to be re-positioned after they are installed.
Light placement is limited due to several factors, such as, duct location and other architectural ceiling elements.
There is a high contrast between the focused areas and the rest of the space. Sometimes this is referred to as the “cave effect”.

Track Lighting

Recessed lights, otherwise knows as can lights, are installed between the ceiling beams in your kitchen. The light bulb is surrounded by a cylinder, the can, typically made of metal or plastic. This keeps the light focused downward only. After the can is mounted and wired to a junction box and a light switch by an electrician, it is hidden by either dry wall or plaster and the finishing touch of adding a decorative ring is added. There are a wide range of options to choose from depending on your budget and overall look you are going for.

Advantages of Track Lighting

Lights can be re-positioned to focus on different areas.
More than one type of light (spotlight, pendant) can be added to the lighting track.
Accent any style of decor with a vast variety of options.

Disadvantages of Track Lighting

Lights are not able to be re-positioned after they are installed.
Light placement is limited due to several factors, such as, duct location and other architectural ceiling elements.
There is a high contrast between the focused areas and the rest of the space. Sometimes this is referred to as the “cave effect”.

Which Light Should You Choose For Your Kitchen?

Modern track lighting is a great way to update your kitchen and make it shine bright! It is a much better system all around. The lights will become a part of your design, rather than being purely functional.

Track lights have the ability to be easily refocused if you are working in an unforeseen area of your kitchen. As a general rule, track lights also have a wider area of illumination than traditional recessed lighting which, if positioned correctly, can help diminish the “cave effect” that some find undesirable.

There are only a couple major disadvantages to track lighting; the initial cost and the ceiling height. If you are doing your kitchen renovations on a strict budget then the most cost efficient recessed lights are going to cost you less than the most cost efficient track lighting systems. Also, if you have a lower than average ceilings there may be more of a chance of banging your head on hanging track lights.