Kitchen Lighting Ideas
Whether your home boasts high ceilings in a wing of a Georgian country house, the low beams of a Kent village farmhouse, or the conical quirks of a traditional oast house, the key to lighting your kitchen successfully lies in careful planning and layering effects.
To learn more, we asked Luke Emmott, Managing Director of our partner, Modus Vivendi to give us his top tips when designing a lighting scheme for a new kitchen.
![TV wall on luxury home spa Kent](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/2-scaled.jpg")
Established 20 years ago in 2005, Maidstone-based Modus Vivendi are leading AV specialists who lead the way in designing and delivering full smart home solutions for luxury residential properties.
By integrating cutting-edge technology in order to elevate living spaces and improve clients’ day-to-day lives they deliver a first-class service. Whether you’re looking for an immersive home cinema to reinvent the way you experience film, a golf simulator room, intelligent lighting for your spa, an outdoor TV enclosure and sound system for your garden or advice on state-of-the-art home security or WiFi & networking, you couldn’t find a safer pair of hands than Luke and his team.
“When thinking about lighting for your new kitchen or open plan family space,” explains Luke, “There are 4 main lighting layer categories to consider for designing the scheme: ambient, task, accent and mood lighting.”
Here are four of our favourite examples from some of our recent projects.
![](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GEORGIANTOWNHOUSEHYBRID36.jpg")
Ambient lighting is designed to evenly illuminate a space or zone.
This example is from a project in Tunbridge Wells where we combined a contemporary aesthetic on the kitchen island with more traditional Shaker-style cabinetry to create a blend of two styles to complement the history and heritage of our client’s period property.
This light and airy space benefits from plenty of natural light and so we positioned three spherical pendant lights above the island to illuminate the informal dining and prep areas, as well as under-counter lighting on one side where we added 4 bar stools.
Inside the cupboards we added LED strip lighting to the interiors, as well as a downlight at one end where we included 4 alcoves with glass shelving for a handful of our client’s ceramics and ornaments.
![LED lighting on a white marble kitchen island](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Rencraft-March-2024-33-scaled.jpg")
Task lighting is specific lighting for activities such as reading, cooking, dining or cleaning.
This example is from a recent collaboration with Ashton Taylor-Smith where we worked in partnership to create “A Kitchen Fit for an Emperor” at his home near Westerham. Due to the property’s Grade 1 Listed status, we were faced with a challenge as to how to effectively light the space, especially when considering the 4 and half metre high ceilings of the former 18th Century grand salon.
To provide plenty of light when cooking, we incorporated a raised plinth which sits proudly on the kitchen island, thus hiding the functional side of the kitchen from the rest of the room, but also providing us with a lighting solution as we were then able to add subtle lighting underneath the plinth to illuminate the hob and prep areas.
We continued this lighting theme on the opposite side of the island where we lit the interiors of the glazed cupboards to highlight the beautiful coral, hand-painted interiors and create stunning silhouettes of Ashton’s curiosities and objets d’art.
![Cocktail bar with shelving, liquid metal worktop, marble splash back and marble sink, wine fridge and bar stools.](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Rencraft-Feb-24-14-scaled.jpg")
Accent lighting is intended to highlight a feature, drawing attention to a specific area or detail.
This example is from our very own cocktail bar which is a show-stopping feature of 81, The Penthouse which may be found on the top floor of our Tunbridge Wells showrooms. When designing the space, we wanted to make the most of the relatively small footprint, as well as the 5 metre high lantern light which allows the light to flood in, and so we selected natural materials which we then accentuated with carefully planned accent lighting.
To draw the eye to the very top of the room we ran LED lighting the full height of the space and beneath the bespoke metal work, so beautifully highlighting the texture of the bronze which we also used underneath the liquid metal worktop of the seating area.
To compound this effect we also positioned 5 spotlights which are angled strategically, as well as under-counter lighting to draw attention to the materials used, and add depth and richness to the design.
![Urban kitchen with exposed brick, Gaggenau appliances and pink handpainted butchers block.](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Rencraft-March-2025-51-scaled.jpg")
Mood lighting is suitable for background or nighttime with softer lighting to set the scene.
This example is from our most recent display in our Tunbridge Wells showrooms where we have created an urban chef’s kitchen in the basement of our Georgian townhouse. This space is a stark contrast to the rest of our displays as the low ceiling and absence of natural light require carefully planned lighting, for which we called upon our friends, Lighting of London to give us their expert advice.
The exposed brickwork, aged copper verdigris splashback and chunky quartz worktops blend to create an intimate space which we lit with a combination of lighting tracks, task and accent lighting, and allow us to light the space from different angles. To add variety, we also added under-shelf lighting to illuminate the cooking space, and picture lighting over our original artwork by local artists.
All lighting schemes are easily controlled by a Rako control panel, with this mood lighting designed for an evening meal or Friday night cocktails being a favourite amongst our design team.
“Once the scheme has been developed, the different light fittings and circuits are combined to create ‘scenes’, where lighting circuits are grouped together, potentially with differing levels of brightness to create the desired effect and ambience,” continues Luke.
![Mood lighting for bathroom Modus Vivendi](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/modusimagesforrencraftblog.png")
It is recommend that these scenes are influenced by either the time of day, or an everyday activity to ensure they remain functional and easily recognisable. For example; Morning, Evening or Entertaining, where the ‘Morning’ scene fills the space with light, and by contrast the ‘Evening’ scene sets a cosier and more intimate mood, with pendant lights dimly lit and a touch of accent lighting to set the background, with some specific task lighting ensuring the space is still functional.
The lighting scenes are recalled by a lighting control keypad as opposed to your traditional bank of switches and rotary dimmers. This enables quick and simple control over the lighting, with engraved buttons to reflect the lighting scenes.
![Bespoke lighting system in a luxury kitchen Tunbridge Wells](https://www.rencraft.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Rencraft-November-2024-9-scaled.jpg")
Our showrooms in Tunbridge Wells are full to the brim with kitchen lighting ideas and our friendly team are on hand to show you around and chat through your plans.
Our penthouse display is also a fantastic example of the work Modus Vivendi do to provide cutting-edge audio visual, security and smart home installations and is an excellent place to begin your luxury technology journey.
Why not give us a call on 01732 762682 or email us at hello@rencraft.co.uk to make an appointment, or just pop in on Monday – Friday between 9am- 5.30pm or on Saturdays from 9.30am-5pm.
