Kitchen Lighting Ideas with Plumen

Looking for beautiful kitchen lighting ideas? The kitchen often doubles up as a space for eating, entertaining, working and playing, so it’s important to have beautiful lighting that balances functionality with ambience. Here, more than anywhere else in the house, versatile lighting is essential.

Words by Kate MacKnight

When should I plan my kitchen lighting?

It’s important to consider your kitchen lighting when you start designing your space (before the electrician does the first fit) rather than seeing it as an afterthought. Make sure you plan your decorative lighting as well as any recessed lighting at this stage as you want to make sure all your lighting is controlled from the mains.

What type of light do I need in my kitchen? 

The best kitchen lighting offers bright task lighting as well as atmospheric, ambient lighting. It’s important to make sure your kitchen counters, hob and sink are well lit, so that food prep areas are safe and you’re never working in shadow. The tendency is to opt for recessed task lighting and make features of ambient lighting, but with modern advances in lighting technology, it’s now possible to turn your task lighting into a feature too. 

If you want (or need) to keep the two separate, make sure your ambient lighting is on a separate system to your task lighting, ideally controlled by a dimmer switch. 

Whichever combination you go for, making a feature of your lighting is a beautiful way to set your kitchen apart from the crowd. Here are some of our favourite kitchen lighting ideas.

Kitchen Island Lighting

Often the hub of a home, a kitchen island requires top notch task lighting as well as beautiful feature lighting. Here, the warm, bright light of the Plumen 001 hung in series over the island, makes a stunning design feature while offering the brightness needed for food prep. By @archtectureforlondon, curated by Dezeen @clickclickjim

Copper Lighting 

Copper is still one of the most popular colours in lighting and @suziemcadam has used it in style. Make a feature over your kitchen table by twisting your pendants into a beautiful display, lit by Plumen 001 or 002 bulbs.

Exposed Filament Bulbs

If you’re a fan of exposed filament bulbs but bored of seeing them everywhere, opt for ones with a contemporary silhouette - adding a modern twist to a vintage light. Here, a row of WattNott Wilmas add ambient and decorative lighting to this modern kitchen.

Track Lighting

Use track lighting to mix and match your spotlights and ambient lights. We love this minimal kitchen which takes on a whole new life when the spots go off - leaving the Plumen 002 to softly illuminate the space with its atmospheric glow. @jody_eechout

Lighting a Vaulted Ceiling 

The beauty of the Plumen range is its flexibility - mix and match components to create the perfect pendant for your space. We love this kitchen by @Nor-folk which makes use of ceiling hooks and super long cable - making the problem with vaulted ceilings no problem at all.

3D Printed Light Shades

For seriously modern and unique kitchen lighting ideas, have some 3D printed Kayan shades made to order. They come in a choice of colours and are designed to fit round our various bulb shapes. Made with recyclable PLA, they’re the perfect choice for a sustainable lighting masterpiece.