The Short Answer
"Recessed lighting" is the American name for what we call downlights or spotlights: small fittings set into the ceiling so that only the face shows. Pendants are lights that hang down on a cable, rod or chain.
If you could only have one, choose downlights. A kitchen is a workroom first, and a grid of downlights gives you bright, even light wherever you stand. A pendant on its own lights a pool beneath it and leaves the corners dim.
But you rarely have to choose only one. Think of downlights as the working light and pendants as the jewellery. The real question is how to combine them, along with a third type that does more useful work than either: lighting under the wall units.
What Downlights Do Well
Downlights disappear. They sit flush with the ceiling, take up no headroom, collect no grease and suit every style of kitchen from a painted shaker to a handleless slab door.
Because you fit several of them, they spread light evenly. Placed properly, they put light on the worktop, into the cupboards when you open a door, and across the floor. They work with dimmers, and modern LED downlights use very little electricity and run cool.
Their weakness is character. A ceiling dotted with too many spotlights can feel like a shop or an office. They also point straight down, so on their own they make a room feel flat and can cast hard shadows under your eyes and under the wall units. That is why a kitchen lit only by downlights often feels bright but not welcoming.
What Pendants Do Well
Pendants bring the light down to where people are. Hung over an island, a peninsula or a dining table, they create a warm pool of light that makes people want to sit there. They also give the eye something to land on. In an open-plan room, a row of pendants tells you where the kitchen stops and the living space starts.
They are also the easiest part of a kitchen to change. Swapping pendant shades in ten years is a small job. Replacing units is not.
The downsides are practical. Pendants gather dust and, near a hob, a film of cooking grease. Glass shades show it most. Hung too low they block the view across the room and catch tall heads. Hung in the wrong place, over a walkway instead of a surface, they simply get in the way. And one pendant in the middle of the ceiling, the arrangement many older Scottish kitchens still have, means you work in your own shadow at every worktop.
Why Good Kitchens Use Layers Of Light
Lighting designers talk about three layers. It sounds grand, but it is common sense.
- General light fills the room. This is the job of downlights.
- Task light falls on the surface you are working at. Slim LED strips or small lights under the wall units do this better than anything on the ceiling, because nothing can come between them and the chopping board.
- Feature light adds warmth and shape. Pendants, a glow along the plinth at floor level, or lights inside a glazed unit.
Put each layer on its own switch, ideally with a dimmer. Then the same kitchen can be bright for cooking on a dark January teatime and soft for a glass of wine afterwards. Our modern kitchens are planned with exactly this arrangement of task lighting, plinth glow and island pendants on separate circuits.
What Your Ceiling Will Allow
The type of home you live in has a big say in this, and it is a point most online guides miss.
Tenements and Victorian homes. Ceilings are often three metres high or more, sometimes with original cornicing, and built from lath and plaster. High ceilings are made for pendants, which bring the light down to a useful height. Cutting a grid of holes in old lath and plaster is possible but messy, and many owners would rather not disturb it. Surface-mounted spotlights or a track are a tidy alternative.
Flats with concrete ceilings. Some post-war and modern flats have a solid concrete slab overhead. You cannot recess a light into it without building a lowered ceiling first, which costs headroom.
Bungalows and post-war houses. Lower plasterboard ceilings are ideal for downlights and less suited to long pendants, except over a table or island where nobody walks.
Flats with neighbours above. Ceilings between homes are part of the fire and sound separation, so the right kind of fitting matters. A qualified electrician will know what is needed, and Building Standards at your council can confirm anything you are unsure of.
Whether it is a flat in the capital or a family semi, our designers look up as well as around when they survey. The Edinburgh kitchens page has more on working in older properties.
Where To Put Them
A few rules of thumb save most of the common mistakes.
- Line downlights up with the edge of the worktop, not the middle of the floor. If the light is behind you when you stand at the worktop, you cast a shadow over your own hands.
- Space them evenly. Roughly a metre or so apart suits most rooms, but the beam angle and the ceiling height change that, so treat it as a starting point.
- Keep downlights clear of wall unit doors. A light placed tight to the units will shine on the top of the door and nowhere useful.
- Hang pendants over a surface, never over a walkway. Over an island, many people find a drop that leaves the bottom of the shade somewhere around 75cm to 90cm above the worktop looks right and keeps sightlines clear. Adjust for your own height.
- Use odd numbers over an island. Three small pendants or one long bar light tend to look more balanced than two.
- Keep pendants away from the hob. Steam and grease will coat them, and the cooker hood should be doing that job.
Bulbs, Colour And Dimmers
The fitting matters less than the light that comes out of it.
Colour temperature is measured in kelvin (K). Around 2700K is the warm, slightly yellow light of an old-fashioned bulb. Around 4000K is a cooler, whiter light. Warm white is kinder in the evening, while a neutral white shows the true colour of food and makes a worktop easier to work at. Many people choose warm white for pendants and something a touch cooler for task lighting. Whatever you choose, keep each layer consistent, as mixed colours in one ceiling look like a mistake.
Dimmers are worth having on every circuit. Check that the LED lamps or fittings are marked as dimmable and that the dimmer is made for LEDs, or they may flicker or buzz.
Colour rendering is how faithfully a light shows colours. If you have chosen a painted door in a particular shade, a fitting with good colour rendering helps it look the way it did on the sample. Seeing door and worktop samples under different lights in our showrooms is a useful check.
Electrics, Timing And Cost
Lighting has to be decided early. The cables go in at first fix, before the units arrive and before the ceiling is plastered or painted. Adding downlights after the kitchen is fitted means cutting into a finished ceiling and redecorating, so it is one of the few choices that is genuinely expensive to change your mind about.
All electrical work in a kitchen should be carried out and certified by a qualified electrician. In a full refit from Ultimate Home Solutions, the electrics are part of the job alongside the rip-out, plumbing and worktops, carried out by trusted installers with all workmanship guaranteed. A typical kitchen takes 10 to 14 working days to fit.
We do not publish a separate price for lighting because it depends on the number of fittings, the state of the existing wiring and the type of ceiling. As a guide to the whole project, fitted kitchens start from £6,000 and most fall between £8,000 and £15,000. If you would like to spread the cost, finance runs from £35 a week, subject to status.
Quick Answers
Are downlights or pendants better for a small kitchen?
Downlights, backed up by lighting under the wall units. They take up no space and light the whole room evenly. A single small pendant over a breakfast bar can still add character. See our small kitchens page for more ideas.
Can I have pendants without an island?
Yes. They work well over a dining table, a peninsula or a breakfast bar. What matters is that they hang over a surface so nobody walks into them.
How many downlights does a kitchen need?
It depends on the size of the room, the ceiling height and how bright each fitting is. An electrician or your kitchen designer can work it out from the plan. More fittings on a dimmer is better than too few at full power.
Are recessed lights the same as downlights?
Yes. Recessed lighting is the American term. In Scotland you will hear downlights or spotlights.
Can downlights go in any ceiling?
No. Solid concrete ceilings cannot take them without a lowered ceiling, and old lath and plaster needs care. Ceilings below another home have extra requirements, so ask a qualified electrician.
Plan the lighting with the kitchen, not after it
Our designers draw your kitchen in 3D with the lighting in place, so you can see where every light falls. The visit and the quote are free, with no obligation.
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