Most kitchens are lit by whatever the original builder put in: one ceiling fitting, or a grid of downlights spaced for the ceiling rather than for the benches. Both produce the same problem. The light comes from behind you, so you work in your own shadow, and the corners of the room fall away into gloom.
A properly lit kitchen uses four layers. They do different jobs, they switch separately, and all but one of them has to be decided before the electrician does the rough-in.
Layer one: ambient light
Ambient light is the general illumination that lets you walk into the room and see everything in it. Its job is evenness — no dark corners, no bright hotspot under each fitting.
Ceiling downlights are the usual delivery method, and the usual mistake is to space them like a grid on a page. Better to place them where they are useful: over the walkway, over the island or table, and out from the wall cabinets rather than directly in front of them, where a downlight simply lights the top of the cupboard doors.
In rooms with high ceilings, a single layer of downlights often is not enough, because the light falls off with distance. A surface-mounted or semi-flush fitting, or a run of concealed light above the wall cabinets, lifts the whole room.
Where a bulkhead or a dropped ceiling exists over the island, that is an opportunity: a shallow perimeter reveal with concealed LED strip gives soft ambient light that makes the ceiling feel higher rather than lower.
Layer two: task light
Task light is the one people notice missing. It puts light directly on the surface you are using, from a position in front of you, so your body cannot block it.
Under wall cabinets. Continuous LED strip inside an aluminium extrusion with a frosted diffuser, mounted toward the front edge of the cupboard base. Mounting it at the back throws light up the splashback instead of down onto the bench. Using individual puck lights instead of a strip gives you a row of bright circles and dark gaps between them.
Over an island or a peninsula. A bench with nothing above it needs its task light from the ceiling. Downlights set over the working edge, or pendants positioned to light the bench rather than to be looked at, both work — but the pendant has to be high enough to see under and low enough to be useful, which usually means the bottom of the shade sits somewhere between 750 and 900 mm above the benchtop.
Inside the pantry. A door-triggered or motion-triggered strip inside a tall pantry transforms it. Without it, you are reading labels in the shadow of your own body.
In deep drawers. Optional, occasionally excellent, and it needs a power point inside the cabinet, which is a design-stage decision.
Over the sink. Often covered by the ceiling layer, but if the sink sits under a window with nothing above it, it needs its own light for washing up after dark.
Layer three: accent light
Accent light is not about seeing — it is about the room having some depth once the task lights are off. It is also the layer that makes a kitchen feel less like a workshop in the evening.
Options that earn their keep:
- Concealed strip above the wall cabinets, washing the ceiling. Cheap, hidden, and dramatic at night.
- Plinth lighting at floor level, which throws a low glow across the floor and doubles as a night light.
- Light inside glass-fronted or open shelving, which turns a shelf into a feature rather than a dark box.
- A strip inside a deep open niche in the splashback.
All of these want to be on their own switch and, ideally, dimmable.
Layer four: feature light
The feature layer is the one you actually look at: pendants over an island, a linear fitting over a dining table, a wall light at the end of a run. It is decoration first and illumination second, and it should be chosen after the other three layers are settled, because its job is smaller than it appears.
Two rules save most regrets. Pendants over an island should relate to the island's length, not to the room — commonly two or three fittings, spaced so the outer ones sit in from the ends. And a pendant that hangs at eye height across a sight line will annoy you every day, so check the sight lines from the sofa and from the dining chairs before the point is set.
Colour temperature and quality
Keep every fitting in the kitchen at the same colour temperature, including the lights inside the rangehood, the oven and the pantry. Mismatched whites are obvious and impossible to unsee.
Somewhere between 3000K and 3500K is right for the great majority of kitchens. Warmer than that and white cabinetry yellows; cooler and the room reads clinical.
Colour rendering matters more in a kitchen than anywhere else in the house, because you judge food by its colour. A high colour rendering index — 90 or above — costs a little more per fitting and is worth it in the one room where you check whether chicken is cooked.
Dimming should be specified with the fitting, not added later. LED dimming is a compatibility question between the driver and the dimmer, and mismatched pairs flicker or buzz.
The wiring decisions to make before rough-in
Lighting is one of the few parts of a kitchen that is genuinely difficult to change afterwards. Before the electrician arrives, the plan should show:
- Every ceiling fitting, positioned relative to the benches rather than the ceiling.
- Every pendant point, with the height noted.
- The under-cabinet strip runs, with the driver's location and a switch.
- Power inside the pantry and inside any appliance cupboard.
- Which fittings share which switch, and which are dimmable.
- Power points along the splashback, including one for each appliance that lives on the bench.
- The rangehood's supply, and its isolating switch.
- Any data or charging point, if a drawer is becoming a device drawer.
Adding a switch after the splashback is tiled means removing tiles. Adding a power point inside a cupboard after the cabinets are installed means removing a cabinet. Marking both on a plan costs nothing at all.
Where this fits in the job
Lighting is settled during design, roughed in after strip-out, and finished in the last week. It is also one of the cheapest ways to make an otherwise modest renovation feel considered — a kitchen with plain laminate doors and four well-planned lighting layers looks better at night than an expensive kitchen with one central fitting.
Read next: layout and design for the plan that lighting hangs off, cabinet door finishes for how door materials handle light, and how a renovation runs for when each stage happens.
Call 02 4404 0245 or send your kitchen details through.
Questions people ask before they commit
How many downlights does a kitchen need?
It is the wrong question, because the answer depends on the output of the fitting, the ceiling height and the colour of the room. Plan by task instead: even ambient light with no dark corners, plus dedicated light landing on every bench you work at, plus light inside the pantry. A typical family kitchen ends up with a handful of ceiling fittings and a continuous run of under-cabinet light, not a grid of twenty downlights.
What colour temperature should kitchen lights be?
Around 3000K to 3500K suits most kitchens: warm enough to feel domestic, neutral enough that food looks like itself. Below 2700K, white cabinetry turns yellow and raw meat looks odd. At 4000K and above, the room reads as commercial. The important thing is that every fitting in the room matches, including the one inside the rangehood.
Is under-cabinet lighting worth it?
It is the single most useful light in a kitchen, because it is the only one that puts light on the bench from in front of you rather than behind you. Continuous LED strip in an aluminium channel, mounted toward the front edge of the cupboard with a diffuser, gives an even wash with no visible dots or hotspots.
Do I need a separate circuit or switch for each layer?
Separate switching, yes — it is what makes layers useful. Ambient, task and feature lighting on their own switches lets the room go from full brightness while cooking to a soft glow in the evening. Whether they need separate circuits is a question for the electrician, and it depends on the total load and the switchboard.
When do lighting decisions have to be made?
Before rough-in, which in practice means during design. Once the plaster is patched and the splashback is tiled, adding a switch, a pendant point or a power point inside a cupboard is disruptive and expensive. Marking every point on the plan costs nothing.