How many spots do you need in a kitchen?

For a kitchen you work with 200 to 300 lumens per square meter — two to three times as much as in a living room. A kitchen of 12 m² therefore needs 2,400 to 3,600 lumens. With 400-lumen spots that comes to six to nine.

The sum per spot

Take 12 m² and work with 250 lumens per square meter, so 3,000 lumens in total:

• With the Marlo (350 lm): 9 spots
• With the Quaro (400 lm): 8 spots
• With the Lyvo on its high setting (700 lm): 4 to 5 spots
• With the Ferro (600 lm): 5 spots

That is almost a factor of two between the weakest and the strongest spot. In a kitchen it therefore pays to go for a spot with more output: fewer holes in the ceiling, less wiring, fewer drivers.

The counter is why you need more

The high lumen figure in a kitchen is not because the room is bigger, but because work happens there. You cut, read labels and check whether something is cooked. That demands sharper vision than watching television.

But the real problem is not the amount of light, it is the shadow. Hang all the spots down the middle of the ceiling and you stand with your back to the light while working at the counter, casting a shadow on your own cutting board. More spots in the middle will not fix that.

Hang them above the worktop, not above the floor

The rule of thumb that makes the difference: place a row of spots about 60 to 80 cm out from the wall, so directly above the front edge of the counter. Then the light falls onto your work surface from the front instead of onto your back from behind.

For the rest of the kitchen you hang a second row further into the room. That separates two jobs: task light above the counter, general light in the space.

Two light colors, one type of spot

Above the worktop, 4000K is more pleasant, because colors look right there. In the rest of the kitchen 3000K is more pleasant, certainly if the kitchen opens onto the living room.

You can do that with the same spot. The Lesto, Quaro and Lyvo have a CCT switch; you set the spots above the counter to 4000K and the rest to 3000K. One order, one type of spot, two layers of light.

Do not forget the zone under the cabinets

Wall cabinets block the ceiling light. Directly under those cabinets, where you do most of the work, it is therefore darkest. Ceiling spots do not solve that, however many you hang — the cabinets are in the way.

That calls for separate under-cabinet lighting. Do not count it in your lumen calculation for the room; it is an extra layer with its own job.

Above an island or table

If there is a kitchen island or dining table in the kitchen, the number of ceiling spots you need drops. A 120 cm Baro pendant light gives 3,000 lumens on its own — enough to fill in a good part of your sum. It also runs from 2700K to 6500K, so you can match it to the rest of the kitchen.

For the spots see the recessed spotlights collection, and for the pendant light the pendant lights.