Accent Your Kitchen With Dramatic Overhead Lighting Options
A kitchen should be more than just a place to cook and clean. With the right décor and design elements, your kitchen can become the vibrant heart of your home. One way to instantly amplify your kitchen's style is with dramatic overhead lighting.
Overhead fixtures like bold pendants, elegant chandeliers, and sleek flush mounts make a statement. They add depth, dimension, and visual interest to kitchen interiors.
Types of Overhead Kitchen Lighting
Pendant Lights
Pendant lights are suspended from the kitchen ceiling by a cord, rod, or chain. They come in an extensive range of sizes, shapes, materials like glass, metal, and wood, and styles to match any kitchen aesthetic - from vintage to contemporary.
Placed over a kitchen island, dining table, or workstation, pendants provide directed task lighting. Mini-pendant clusters, large drum pendants, bell-shaped pendants, and geometric pendants are all dramatic options that will command attention.
Chandeliers
If you want to make a bold statement, a glamorous chandelier is sure to do the trick. Chandeliers are elegant multi-light fixtures that function as dramatic focal points in kitchens. They are typically used over dining tables or kitchen islands to provide ambient and task lighting.
The choice includes crystal, metal, and wood chandeliers with candle, drum, or bowl shaped light frames. Chandeliers lend old-world sophistication and glamour to both modern and more traditional kitchen interiors.
Flush Mount Lights
Flush mount lights are overhead fixtures that mount directly to the kitchen ceiling in a smooth, streamlined manner. Unlike pendant and chandeliers, flush mount lights hug the ceiling closely to emit soft, ambient lighting across the entire kitchen.
Minimalist, contemporary flush mount styles are currently trending. They help create a polished, integrated look. Flush mounts are best installed last after task and accent lighting to finish off your kitchen lighting plan.
Track Lighting
Track lighting offers incredible flexibility and functionality. The light fixtures feature adjustable heads set in tracks on the ceiling to allow placement wherever light is needed most.
Focused track lighting is ideal for highlighting specific kitchen areas like islands, glass door cabinet displays, artwork, and task zones. Create visual interest with curved or zigzag track layouts.
Under Cabinet Lights
For more discreet task lighting, under cabinet LED strip lights and puck lights are installed directly beneath wall cabinets. Under cabinet lighting casts directed light ideal for prepping and cooking tasks across kitchen countertops and backsplashes.
Both hardwired and plugin under cabinet lighting options are available for easy DIY installation. They illuminate without taking up any space on your countertops or ceilings.
Kitchen Lighting Design Tips
Mix Different Lighting Types
The key is to layer ambient, task, and accent lighting to create well-lit kitchens. Balance overhead lighting like flush mounts and pendants with recessed lighting, under cabinet fixtures, and decorative lighting.
Mind the Layout
Strategically place pendants to spotlight kitchen islands, dining nooks, and work triangles. Use linear lighting styles to help a narrow galley kitchen appear wider and longer.
Install Dimmers
Dimmers allow you to easily control the brightness of pendant, chandeliers, and overhead lighting. Create the perfect ambiance whether you're prepping ingredients, casual dining, or entertaining guests.
Focus on Style
Choose overhead kitchen lighting fixtures that match your kitchen's decor style and furnishings. Industrial, modern, transitional, rustic, retro - the options are versatile.
The right overhead lighting can make a dramatic statement and bring depth and dimension to any kitchen design. Pendant lights, flush mounts, track lighting, and under cabinet fixtures are all striking overhead options that serve both form and function.
Carefully choose the placement, size, finishes, and style of any overhead kitchen lighting to complement your existing layout and interior decor. With layered ambient, task, and accent lighting, your kitchen is sure to shine as the focal point of your home.