Showing posts with label under cabinet lights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label under cabinet lights. Show all posts

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Under Cabinet Lights Ideas

Adding under cabinet lights to your kitchen is an inexpensive upgrade that makes your kitchen more inviting and more functional. Cabinets can create large shadows that make it hard to see preparation surfaces while cooking food. This can not only lead to cuts and to a more difficult cooking experience, but it can also make cleanup more difficult, leading to bacterial growth. Under cabinet lighting is certainly the ideal solution, but getting the right lights for the situation is important.

This type of kitchen task lighting is available with many types of bulbs, including incandescent, fluorescent, halogen, and xenon bulbs. Not all under cabinet lights solutions are created equal. Options such as fluorescent bar lights can generate a great deal of heat, and if you are working in a small space you run the risk of burns as well as the risk of causing any fruit in the area to brown very rapidly. Incandescent bulbs would be simply impractical for the area, however, which is why so many turn to traditional bar lighting. If you are seeking a better option, it will certainly prove worth your effort to look into LED light strips.

With LED under cabinet lighting, there are many noticeable differences. For starters, you will find that these light strips offer the most natural looking source of light possible. This means seeing more exact colors and being able to see finer details than with other sources. By choosing a natural white light, you can also avoid the yellow or bluish tint that comes with most under cabinet lights options. LED lighting also gives off far less heat than other lighting choices, which means that it can be left safely on around fruit and other sensitive foods without the need to worry.

Many people choose fluorescent lights for their under cabinet lights. They are energy efficient, and the bulbs last a long time. A lot of fluorescent lights designed for under counter use are rectangular and fairly flat, so that they are completely unobtrusive. The main drawback of fluorescent lighting is that it can distort some colors (oranges, reds, and purples).

When choosing your under cabinet lights, consider your countertop material. If you have shiny countertops, consider lights with frosted lenses so that you avoid a "spotlight" effect on the countertops. For every four feet of countertop you want to illuminate, choose one 12-inch fixture, or three puck lights. Many designers recommend installing the fixtures toward the front of the cabinets so that they illuminate more of your working surface. And if your cabinets do not have a valance that would hide the under cabinet lights, you can easily find two-inch cabinet molding to fit to the fronts of your cabinets, or you can choose low-profile light fixtures that are barely noticeable.