Remodeling your kitchen can be exciting; picking out all your new appliances, cabinets, tile and everything else to make your kitchen stylish.
Having a functional kitchen, however, requires you to consider overhead/ambient lighting, accent lighting, and of course task or under cabinet lights.
We are going to explore the task lighting options available to you.
The first thing to consider is where you will need the lighting. Think about the tasks that you do at the counter; reading recipes, preparing them and then the clean-up. Under cabinet lighting works best for those.
LED
I would always choose LED lighting over other bulb sources. LED runs cooler than the old fluorescent lights, so you don’t have to worry about items that you store in the cabinets above. They use less electricity so the running costs for these lights are minimal and have many choices of the light you may need.
Now the other factor to consider is choosing a puck light or strip light. Think about how you envision using the space. Strip lights give an "Even" continuous light on the surface, whereas puck lights give you a spot effect with a "Dome" shape to the pattern (as pictured below).
Puck Lighting
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These are $33.95 and come in 4 finishes
Strip Lighting
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- Dimmable with most standard 2-wire and CL dimmers with 5-100% light output (minimum loads will apply)
- Micro switch on housing can be set to 2400K, 3000K or 4000K CCT (correlated color temperature)
- High CRI (90+) for all CCTs
- Low profile housing hides easily – less than 1” high
These come in four lengths ranging from $63 for an 8-inch strip to $127 for a 32-inch strip.
You can get them in two finishes, white and bronze.
Final Thoughts
My opinion is that the LED strips work best for under cabinet task lighting and that the pucks work well for lighting the inside of cabinets as pictured below.
I recommend tape or ribbon strips to light floating vanities, coves and the tops of cabinets.
If you are still in the dark about which application would work best for you anyone of our lighting consultants would be happy to help.
Additional Resources
Get our free Under Cabinet Lighting Buying Guide for tips, trends and more on planning your task lighting. Over 180,000 people have already found answers in a Yale guide.
Related Articles
- LED Tape vs LED Strips (you will like this)
- Legrand LED Under Cabinet Lighting
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on April 24, 2013 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
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