Recessed Lighting Layout Secrets for a Bright, Beautiful Kitchen

Choosing the right layout for recessed lighting is essential to create a beautiful, functional kitchen. Careful planning and positioning of recessed cans make all the difference in providing optimal illumination for food prep, cooking, and ambiance.

Follow our step-by-step recommendations for determining the ideal number, placement, and beam angles of cans for maximum brightness.

Planning Your Kitchen Recessed Lighting Layout

The first step in planning your kitchen lighting design is gathering measurements and creating a simple sketch. This allows you to calculate how many recessed fixtures you need and map out potential placement.

Measure Room Dimensions

Using a tape measure, carefully measure the full length, width and ceiling height of your kitchen space. Be sure to capture dimensions of any islands, peninsulas or architectural details. Having accurate room sizes is crucial for planning sufficient lighting.

Make a Sketch

On graph paper, sketch out your kitchen footprint including locations of cabinets, countertops, sinks, stove, refrigerator and any islands or eating areas. Make note of key work zones where tasks like food prep and cooking take place. Also indicate typical traffic patterns through the space.

Key Layout Factors for Optimal Lighting

To illuminate your kitchen beautifully, pay attention to light beam angle, spacing, positioning and output when laying out recessed cans.

Beam Angles

Mix narrow spotlighting with wide flood lighting. Use narrow beam recessed lights directly over key workspaces like sinks, stoves and islands. Wide beam ambient fixtures fill in other areas.

Light Spacing

Space recessed light fixtures evenly at 2-3 feet apart for consistent coverage. Avoid large gaps between lights which create dark zones.

Positioning Recessed Lights

Focus recessed cans over kitchen zones where tasks occur like food prep areas, stoves, sinks and islands. Line perimeter with lights to reduce shadows. Fill in central zones with ambient lighting.

Light Output

Select lights with enough lumens for kitchen tasks but not so bright as to cause glare. Typically 2000-3000 lumens per fixture is ideal.

Light Color

Soft white (3000K-4000K color temperature) provides pleasing illumination. Avoid cool LEDs with blue undertones.

Common Kitchen Recessed Lighting Layouts

Use these sample lighting maps as guides when designing your kitchen layout.

One Central Island

Create a perimeter ring of recessed lights. Add lines of lights over and around the central island for task lighting.

Peninsula Island

Position recessed cans evenly along perimeter walls. Install under cabinet lights for task illumination. Spotlight the peninsula workspace.

Galley Kitchen

Run a line of recessed lights down the center of the long galley space. Fill perimeter with ambient lighting fixtures.

L-Shaped Kitchen

Follow the L shape with perimeter and task lighting recessed cans. Increase fixtures at the end of the L.

Tips for Lighting Open Kitchens

For large open floor plans, space recessed fixtures evenly and consistently throughout the full area. Increase total number of recessed cans as needed.

Improper recessed lighting layouts result in dark spots, shadows and glare. Common mistakes include insufficient lights, uneven spacing, bad mix of beam angles and poorly placed accent lighting.

With some planning and care, you can create the perfect lighting layout to illuminate your kitchen beautifully and functionally.