clarkandaldine

HOW TO PLACE YOUR RECESSED LIGHTING

Written by

Michael Gutelli

in

Where Is The Best Spots For Your Kitchen Recessed Lighting?

When planning your lighting in a new space, recessed lighting is always a solid option to ensure your space is getting enough light. Kitchens, for example, require more lighting versus other areas inside your home. We’ve created a guide to help you think through how to place your recessed lighting correctly in your home.

Kitchen

Kitchens need to provide a lot of light for your work space, and in here, it’s ok to have extra lighting. You want to make sure you are properly placing your lighting so you don’t have dark spaces inside your kitchen. You want to make sure the light does not create a shadow behind you. Creating a lighting perimeter around your base cabinets is what we like to do.

HOW TO FIGURE OUT THE DISTANCE BETWEEN RECESSED LIGHT FIXTURES IN A KITCHEN 

  • Pro tip
    • 24” off wall with cabinets
    • 36”- 48” off wall with a refrigerator, or 24” cabinet/pantry cabinet  
    • 36”- 48” apart on the ceiling 

Everywhere Else

HOW TO FIGURE OUT DISTANCE BETWEEN RECESSED LIGHTING FIXTURES

  • Pro tip: divide ceiling height by 2
    • 8’ ceiling, 48” apart
    • 10’ ceiling, 60” apart
    • 12’ ceiling, 72” apart
Kitchen Recessed Lighting

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Comments

  1. Warren From Boston Avatar
    Warren From Boston

    Good tip, thanks!

    Reply
    1. Danielle Gutelli Avatar
      Danielle Gutelli

      Thank you so much!

      Reply
  2. Kari from Wisconsin Avatar
    Kari from Wisconsin

    Just a question for clarification: When you say 24” off wall with cabinets do you mean 24” from the cabinets or 12” from the cabinets, assuming upper cabinets are about 12” deep?

    I see in your diagram it says 24” from upper cabinets but I just want to make sure I’m reading your information correctly. Some people put recessed lights right above the edge of the countertop which seems to put a lot of light on the top of the upper cabinets.

    Reply
    1. Danielle Gutelli Avatar
      Danielle Gutelli

      Hi Kari,

      You are correct we do place lighting 24″ off the wall. This is because you base cabinets typically fall around 24″. By placing the light 24″ off the wall that helps to prevent any for of shadowing happening when in the kitchen working. Sorry for the confusion on that. Hope this helps clarify.

      Thanks for reading!

      Danielle

      Reply
  3. Danielle Avatar
    Danielle

    What about for cabinets of different depth? Do you cater to the depth of the cabinet so 12″ away from the cabinet or is it more important for recessed lighting to be in a straight line.

    Reply
    1. Danielle Gutelli Avatar
      Danielle Gutelli

      Honestly I think the truly depends on the space. For example if you have a refrigerator and then a cabinet over the top of that we would absolute move the lighting outward because we wouldn’t want it to shadow and it would be lost if we didn’t pull it out.

      Reply

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