Lighting Plan Advice please!

4 years ago

I have put together a lighting plan for our house but my other half feels like there are not enough spotlights and that the house will therefore be dark.

Could anyone take a look at the attached image and give us any advice.

I am trying to minimise downlights as much as possible, as I feel like they aren't particularly nice but I have tried to add them where we will need task lighting, and where there may be potential dark spots.

Hopefully the plan below is self explanatory. For some additional context:

- the living room ceiling light will be a globe sputnik, I have attached an image.

- the ceiling light above the dining table will be a 3 armed pendant so hopefully the light will be distributed well horizontally.

- the downlights we will hopefully be going for are low profile LED's. We are aiming for a beam angle of either 60 or 110 so I am hoping this will help minimise the amount of them we will need.

The living room is approx 3.5mX4.5m.

From the rear wall of the kitchen to the back door is approx 5.3m, with the rear width being around 5m.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! :)

Featured Answer

Ellie

4 years ago

Definitely put them on perhaps 3 different circuits so you can control different zones

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Comments (18)

Ellie
4 years ago
Our new kitchen/diner is 6 X 5 m. We have a 6 bulb Sputnik above dining table and 3 pendant lights above island and feel that is enough. We also have 2 wall lights above sink wall, used only at night when doing dishes. We have no downlights, like yourself I don't like them.
PRO
Paul Reed Architects Ltd
4 years ago
When I do an electric plan, I tend to work on spots every 80cm - 1 m and run them along heline of kitchen units (so you don't get your own shadow cast on the worktop surface) (caveat: this depends on spotlight type and coverage and should be checked by electrician to make sure spacing works for illumination.) Id probably lose the second pendant in the kitchen and maybe have a pendant cluster low level over the table instead. Like the wall lights but watch out for reflection in the TV screen.
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I think it will look great to open up the kitchen and conservatory areas because the area is quite small. However, here are a few things to consider (this is from someone who lives in a house with a similar layout to your existing ground floor). The conservatory faces south and presumably overlooks the garden. Is this an area you are going to want to sit in because it will be beautiful and tranquil? If so, it would be better to keep the dining room in the centre area because you don't need a view when eating (except of the food). Then use the conservatory as a small sitting room. It looks like you have not drawn the plans to scale. The new hallway looks narrow and the new wall will take up space. Make sure if a new wall is put in that you will have enough space for a useable room plus a hallway. Why do you want to access the new downstairs bedroom/study from the living room? Wouldn't it be better to access it from the hallway at the bottom of the stairs. Good ideas though.
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Inset ceiling down-lights in a grid pattern on a dimmer throughout the entire area will give you maximum flexibility for furniture placement as well as a good level of light for working / cleaning. i don’t know what the extent of your wall shelves will be but LED strips on their underside will assist with lighting the worktops. Floor / table lamps at the sitting / dining end and the pendants over your island would give good ‘layering of light’ for ambience. Make sure each lighting style is on a separate circuit and is dimmable..
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Those measurements for the sitting/dining don’t look right. It appears to be a much longer narrower space. My view is you will ultimately have to extend to get a good sized kitchen. Extending it into the narrow end of the sitting/dining will be very narrow and with the door into the conservatory not much usable space. For now, live with it and save up for your dream extension.
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What don’t you like about entrance to kitchen? I imagine it feels like you are walking into a utility and then you have the full height units on the left overpowering the space? Just a thought could you reconfigure space under stairs as a location for a large fridge freezer? Do you really want to move utility to garage as you will then either have to put in another door from kitchen or go through playroom to get to utility. Is the conservatory in good condition / useable in winter and summer as it is? If so then as above I would knock through kitchen to diner opening it up and put either dining table or sofa in the conservatory. I think you have a lot to think through and should probably work with a designer to give you options.
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Poonam Tanna
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Paul. Thanks for the advice.

So would you suggest to get rid of the second pendant in the kitchen and add additional spots?
Fran H
4 years ago
I agree with Paul Reed Architects, but would also add a socket to the other side of the hob. Also, you may need task lighting on the worktops illuminating from under cabinets or shelves, or wall lights if you’re not having either. Two or three separate circuits would help with ambience.
PRO
Paul Reed Architects Ltd
4 years ago
nice Fran, yes task lighting if you can do it under the wall units.
Poonam Tanna
Original Author
4 years ago
Ah, I forgot to add that we are also having an LED strip under the wall units so that will help with the task lighting. I also wasn't finished with the socket situation so we've added some more in the left hand corner.
minnie101
4 years ago
I agree with other comments, just to add I'm not sure about the wall lights position in the living room as I would use them to zone the sofa rather than sofa and chair, would you be better off doing either of these options? Will you also be having lights to see into those kitchen cupboards on the right? I definitely agree about wiring everything separately, will any of these lights be dimmable particularly the ceiling pendants and wall lights over the sofa? When I did my basement lighting plan I forgot to add a socket position for a Xmas tree...it's also good to have sockets that are easy to reach for hoovering as you don't want to be pulling tables over with the cable etc.
Poonam Tanna thanked minnie101
PRO
Artform London
4 years ago
Sorry to digress but are you sure about the kitchen layout? The L shape you have at present leaves a huge open space in the middle of the room. Have you considered a straight run with an island instead - it would make much better use of the space. I would also suggest you straighten up the last cabinet on the right hand side. Why not run all three cabinets in a straight line and move them slightly to the left, you will lose a little space behind them but the end result will look far more pleasing than having one at at an angle. I know you asked about lighting but ....
Poonam Tanna
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi Artform. No worries, completely understand your advice.

We were originally going to go for a straight run along the left with an island, but because our house is angled on the right that did not leave much space for a dining table. We have purposefully left that space in the middle to allow us some flexibility with the room in the future - in case we want to add a small island/chefs table at some point, or change the orientation of the dining table. The decision stemmed from the idea of having separate spaces in the kitchen, I liked the idea of the kitchen/cooking area being at the back of the room (which will be slightly lacking natural light) with the dining area being at the front as we are having bi-fold doors fitted to go out into the garden and thought this would make for a lovely dining space when the doors are opened fully in the summer.

The room in question is not massive so the middle space isn't that big at all, we really had to weigh up whether we wanted an island or a large dining table I didn't want the room to be cramped by squeezing both in. By leaving it like this we can always add additional cupboards along the left wall if we wanted to or even still add an island at some point. The dining table was really important to us though hence our decision.

Regarding the 3 cabinets on the left, thanks to the lovely angle we have along that wall, it is not possible to have them straight unless we move the doorframe more to the left. In reality that gap and small wall you see on the left hand side of the kitchen door does not exist, the cupboards come flush so we cannot move the wall. So we'll just have to have one cupboard at an angle unfortunately. Our kitchen designers have shown us what this looks like in 3D imaging and I don't have any issues with the final product.

Thanks again for the advice though, hope this makes sense!
PRO
Artform London
4 years ago
Understood. Just one final suggestion regarding the three cabinets on the right hand side. You might consider slightly reducing the depth of one of them. Unless they are all appliances, you will lose very little space but substantially improve the feel of the space.
Poonam Tanna
Original Author
4 years ago
That angled cupboard was going to house a microwave; we're also getting our kitchen from Howdens so I'm unsure if it's possible to get a reduced depth cabinet but it's definitely a good question to put forward to them! I'd need to check the depth of a microwave and see if Howdens have the right depth cupboard but could be an option.

Thanks again! :)
Ellie
4 years ago
You really need a full 600 deep cupboard for microwave, that's what we have and it would be tight otherwise.
Ellie
4 years ago
And I wouldn't angle it either, keep all in line would be much sleeker
Poonam Tanna
Original Author
4 years ago
If we need a full 600 deep cupboard for the microwave then the angle is going to have to stay guys. There isn't much we can do in that respect so we're just going to have to work with the angle we have, I don't personally think it's the end of the world.
PRO
Artform London
4 years ago
If you are using an integrated microwave, you do not need a full depth cabinet. Most are around 300-350mm deep. Integrated Combi Microwave Ovens however are around 550mm deep so you would require a full depth cabinet. A good kitchen fitter will be easily able to reduce the depth of a cabinet if you decide this is the best route. The end of the cabinet will in any case be hidden by a finishing panel which would be scribed and cut to suit the wall. But, of course, the final solution is up to you. Apologies for breaking into this discussion which was after all about lighting, not cabinets!
Ellie
4 years ago
Sorry, yes we have just a standard microwave hidden inside a tall larder unit so do require full depth unit, integrated may be different
PRO
OnePlan
4 years ago
Micro might look better in the central of the three cabinets anyway ?

Lighting Plan Advice please!

Ellie

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