How to light a new (or an old) kitchen

I linked up with the Lighting Style Blog a couple of weeks ago and I'm enjoying watching their site grow. I'm intrigued by good lighting and over the years I've taught myself a thing or two about how I like to have my work lit. I am not a lighting designer and I'll be the first to admit that. Complicated lighting jobs are best tackeled by a lighting pro. But even with that said, it doesn't hurt to know a thing or two about some of the general guidlines of how to light a kitchen.

1. To add interest and functionality to a kitchen, you should have several different levels of lighting:

• Ambient Lighting:  General lighting
  
• Decorative Lighting:  A fixture that adds a design element, such as a chandelier.
  
• Focal Lighting:  Is used in a specific area such as glass cabinets or a tile pattern.
  
• Task Lighting:  Used on any work surface.
  

2. Ambient Lighting, or general lighting, is important for seeing into cabinets and appliances.

3. The most important areas to light in a kitchen are the task areas like countertops, tables, appliance tops, etc.

4. Under-cabinet lighting looks and functions best when the fixture is pulled to the front of the cabinet so that the light is hitting the middle of the countertop.

5. A footcandle is a unit of measurement used to calculate the illumination of light cast on a surface. One footcandle is equal to 10 lux.  General footcandle requirements for any space is 25-30 footcandles. (Follow this link for a good explanation of how brightness is measured.)

• For a task area such as a countertop, plan for 50-75 footcandles.
  
• You may need to adjust the footcandle level based on the occupant’s age.  Occupants over the age 55 would need about 30% more footcandles than a younger person.
  

6. How colors are used in a room will affect the quantity of light required.  Darker cabinets and countertops will require more task lighting.

7. Kelvin ratings are used to determine light’s color temperature (coolness or warmness).  The higher the number, the cooler the light.  The lower the number, the warmer the light.  This is important in the kitchen as a light’s color temperature greatly affects the presentation of food.

• It is best to stay away from cool lighting (3,600 to 5,500k).
  
• Warm-neutral lighting (2,900 to 3,600k) is best for general and task lighting.
  

8. It is important that all lamps used in a room appear to be the same color temperature.

• If you use warm incandescent bulbs in the recessed cans and hanging pendants, but you use cool fluorescent bulbs in the under-cabinet lights for the task lighting, the difference in color temperature will not work well together, creating an odd look.
  

9. Note, dimming a lamp will cause it to look warmer.

10. It is important to prevent scallop lighting while illuminating wall cabinets as they can cause visual disruptions.  For minimal scalloping on the front of 12” deep cabinets, a minimum of 40” from the back wall to the center of the recessed can is usually required.

Cool, modern switchplates and outlet covers

Back in December, I wrote a post about the Bocci plate-less outlets. They are beautiful and I still love them as much as I did when I first found them. They are however, a bit of a commitment and insanely difficult to retrofit. So what to do when I have a modern design and I want to do something interesting with the switch plates and outlet covers?

Enter Chiasso and their Traverse series of plates. They are really interesting and I mean that in a good way. They're simple and they announce themselves subtly. Modern design is quiet and simple the way I see it. It shouts by whispering if that makes any sense. Even if it doesn't, these plates do that I think they're cool. Their prices range from $14 to $22, and really, who's going to argue with that?

Many thanks to Creede Fitch from Grass Roots Modern for the heads up.

Cool new mosaic blends

Aston Smith is a kitchen designer based in greater New York. I follow her on Twitter and yesterday she posted a link to Susan Jablon Mosaics. I'm an easy sell though, just mention the word "mosaic" and I'm all yours.

However, nothing prepared me for the selections available from Susan Jablon. If you can imagine it as a mosaic, Susan Jablon Mosaics either has it or will find it. Wow.

Best of all, they have a custom blend tool on their website. I made the three mosaic blends on this post about a half an hour ago. Not only can you make blends to your heart's delight, their custom blend tool prices as you work. Using it, you can see the square foot cost of the fruits of your imagination. You can even buy single, square foot samples. Susan Jablon, where have you been all my life?! Bravo! Don't believe me? Go play around with that blend tool. You'll be hooked.

Let me toot my own horn (again)

I'm nothing if not a shameless self-promoter. Check this out though. Here's a photo one of my pals at Google SketchUp sent me. This is a photo of their large-screen display at their booth at the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in Atlanta last weekend.

Now if I zoom in on the design displayed on that screen...  

A little tighter...

Oh look! It's one of mine...

Thanks Google!

Now that's what I call a urinal

So where's my bidet lady when I need her? Check these out.

These are real urinals and they are available for sale. Clark Sorenson is a San Francisco-based artist and you can buy one of these flower urinals through his website. Astounding. Even more so when you stop and think about what a flower is when you get right down to it. All I can say is wow.

Many thanks to the lovely and talented Melody McFarland for the great find. Check out her blog, I Like Pigeons Because Nobody Else Does.