Looking for photo's or suggestions for kitchen/hallway lighting

[andysideas]

Lighting has to be the hardest thing to choose.

I'm looking for photos or any suggestions people have.

Also if I buy some light fittings, can I simply fit a 3amp plug to them to get an idea of location ?

[meow2222]

provide pics of the room, give us a clue.

yes, but you need to arrange some kind of cordgrip too

NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

No, colouring schemes are the hardest thing to choose ;-)

I've done 3 kitchens in last 6 years. My preference is for bright diffuse invisible lighting. The best scheme in my view is available where you have wall cupboards over worktops which don't go right up to the ceiling. In this case, the kitchen can be lit using under cupboard lighting for the worktops, and over cupboard lighting bouncing off a brilliant white ceiling to provide the general room lighting. Any central ceiling light point is removed (it's about the worse place to put a light in a kitchen, unless you have worktop islands). I've done this scheme twice, and it works very well. If you have some worktops without cupboards above, lighting for these can be provided by a local wall mounted uplighter, again making use of the ceiling as a diffuser, or a ceiling mounted downlighter (although I personally hate most that you can buy, and have made my own when required). In a kitchen without the possibility of over cupboard lighting, it is more difficult. In this case, I retained the central lighting point and fitted quite a large diffusing lamp (so it can dish out a good level of light without any dazzle/glare). Split the lighting across 2 or 3 switches, so you can vary the lighting pattern and level as required.

Use fluorescents for all the kitchen lighting, and if you are using different types, make sure they are all the same colour temperature (3500K would be about right for a bright kitchen, and 2700K if you need to blend in with filament lighting or compact fluorescent retrofits).

Hall lighting does not have to be anywhere near as functional as kitchen lighting or anywhere near the same lighting level, so this really is much more a case of what goes well with the decor.

If you mean to temporarily test for best locations and lighting levels, then this is an excellent thing to do, providing you do it safely. Actually, the last kitchen I did, most of the lighting points are via wall mounted Klik lighting sockets anyway, as most of the lighting is mounted on kitchen units. I did just as you suggested, to test out the lighting scheme before fitting it permanently.

[John Schmitt]

If you are after modern chrome and glass type stuff,

Schmitt