How to light a kitchen worktop
Give a kitchen worktop 300 to 500 lux in 4,000 K neutral white. The light must come from in front of you, not behind: under-cabinet lights, ceiling spotlights or pendants over an island, depending on the layout.
Worktop light has to land between you and the wall. Allow 300 to 500 lux on the surface, in 4,000 K with a CRI of at least 80, while the rest of the kitchen makes do with 200 to 300 lm/m² in 3,000 K. A ceiling light alone is never enough, for reasons of geometry rather than power.
First, the shadow that rules out a ceiling light on its own
Standing at the worktop, you have the central ceiling light behind you. Your back blocks it, and the 60 cm depth where you chop and weigh becomes the darkest strip in the room. The ceiling light is still useful for moving around and cleaning. It is no good for working.
Even a 3,000 lm ceiling light changes nothing, because the geometry stays the same. Try it one evening with only the ceiling light on and a sheet of white paper on the worktop, and watch your silhouette cover it. The task light therefore goes either under the wall units or on the ceiling directly above the worktop, about 50 cm from the wall. General lighting and the dining corner are covered in our article on lighting the whole kitchen.
Under the wall units: an LED strip light
Where wall units run above the worktop, this is the most direct answer. Fix the strip light towards the front of the unit, close to the door, so that the light falls on your hands and not on the splashback. One lux is one lumen received per square metre. A 2 m by 60 cm worktop is 1.2 m², so it needs 360 to 600 lm actually arriving to reach 300 to 500 lux, and the fitting’s rated output must be higher than that, since part of it goes to the splashback and the underside of the cabinet. Choose 4,000 K with a CRI of at least 80, and an opal diffuser if the worktop is glossy; otherwise every LED shows up as a dot in the granite.
Plan the switching before fitting. A dedicated switch at the end of the run, or a button on the light itself, saves lighting the whole kitchen to chop an onion. Over the sink, where splashes happen daily, an IP44 fitting is the usual recommendation, as that rating covers splashing water. Otherwise three figures separate two under-cabinet lights: output, colour temperature and length, to be compared with the width of the unit.
No wall units: spotlights on the ceiling
When nothing hangs over the worktop, the light has to come from the ceiling straight above it. Kitchen spotlights, recessed or surface-mounted, go about 50 cm from the wall and 1 to 1.5 m apart, with 300 to 500 lm per spotlight and one for every 1 to 1.5 m² of worktop. A 3 m by 60 cm run is 1.8 m², so two spotlights 1.5 m apart. Take them at 500 lm, the top of the range, since 540 to 900 lm has to reach the surface. Adjustable heads are angled towards the worktop and never towards the table, where someone would catch them in the eyes. No void above the ceiling? Forget recessed fittings and use surface-mounted spotlights or a track.
Over the worktop, 4,000 K. In a kitchen that opens onto the living room, keep that neutral white to the worktop spotlights and stay with 3,000 K elsewhere, or the sitting area looks grey. Lumen equivalents and bulb caps are covered in which LED bulb for which room.
Over an island: pendants 75 to 90 cm above the surface
An island is the one worktop where a pendant belongs, because people work at it from every side and nobody has their back to the light. Set the base of each pendant 75 to 90 cm above the surface. Lower, it blocks the view across; higher, the light spreads out before it reaches the worktop. Several pendants in a row are spaced 60 to 80 cm apart, which means two or three for a 2 m island.
If you eat at the island, plan as for a table of six, 1,500 to 2,000 lm in total. Sitting at the breakfast bar, you see the bulb. A clear filament bulb is only acceptable on a dimmer at 400 lm per bulb or less; otherwise choose an opaque shade or opal glass. Height-adjustable kitchen pendant lights let you find the correct drop without cutting the flex.
| Layout | Fitting | Output | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall units above the worktop | LED strip light, 4,000 K | More than the 360 to 600 lm needed on 1.2 m² | At the front of the unit |
| Worktop without wall units | Recessed or surface spotlights | 300 to 500 lm per spotlight | 50 cm from the wall, 1 to 1.5 m apart |
| Island | Two or three pendants | 1,500 to 2,000 lm if you eat there | 75 to 90 cm above the surface |
An L-shaped 9 m² kitchen with 3.20 m of worktop
Picture a 3 × 3 m kitchen with 2 m of wall units along the back wall, then 1.20 m of open worktop under the window, sink included. For the room as a whole, 200 to 300 lm/m² gives 1,800 to 2,700 lm: a 2,400 lm kitchen ceiling light in 3,000 K in the centre. Under the wall units, 2 m by 0.60 m makes 1.2 m², so a 4,000 K LED strip light rated above 600 lm, fixed at the front of the cabinets, with its own button. Above the open worktop, 0.72 m², a single adjustable 400 lm spotlight 50 cm from the wall, aimed at the sink. A two-gang switch by the door controls the ceiling light and the spotlight, while the strip light is switched where it hangs.
What does not work, and why
- Fixing the strip light at the back of the wall unit, against the wall. It lights the splashback and leaves your hands in shadow.
- Lining the spotlights up down the middle of the ceiling, more than a metre from the wall. They end up behind you as soon as you face the worktop.
- Hanging clear 800 lm glass over the island with no dimmer, so anyone at the breakfast bar gets the bulb full in the face.
- Connecting a non-dimmable strip light to a dimmer. It flickers; the fitting and the control must both be marked dimmable.