I think as long as you have other black elements in your kitchen the black downlights will look great.

Separately you might want to find some with a wider surround as a wider surround better hides any damage caused by cutting holes in the ceiling.

I’m in the ‘white fittings camp’ to blend away and not be a statement... but that’s just my taste.

thanks. Do you think the deeper recess ones are better? They just put the ones where the bulb is flush with the ceiling into my hall and its like glare city.

I think the deeper ones look nicer, where the bulb sits up higher as in the pic. But wondered what the actual light was like.

@mii2 I was only considering the baffle being black, as in the inside. The bottom bit would be white. I only decided this based on reading advice from Sally Storey. Now I am wondering how that would look.

hi Christina,

I think you have two decisions.

1. deep recess rather than surface fixed light. This is about the spread of the light beam. to get a crisp beam the deep fittings are used in black to reduce the reflection from the side of the fitting. the resultant light will be a circle at a set width. at the surface which is based on ceiling height etc.

2. the bezel colour is more about your overall look in terms of design. by using a white bezel the black will disappear with the light on and achieve a nice overall look to the kitchen. it is your choice but I think the white bezel will tone down the lights.

if you go for a light source that is not recessed the width of beam is achieved with the reflector on the fitting at whichever angle of spread you prefer.

That is my poor effort at lighting design theory. F or a proper explanation you need a lighting designer- Kevin Mccloud is a lighting designer, so he could give you chapter and verse on lighting. He is not as good with architecture and design though!

I hope this helps a bit on deciding what to do - I think the deep light fixture is a good choice!! lighting quality is important, so buy the best you can afford to really get impactful lighting.

best

Rowland

@Rowland Thank you, that makes sense.

I guess some will give a direct beam to light certain objects and others will spread the light more for a bigger surface.

Gosh its rather complicated, who knew. I have never had to think about it before, I wish I had thought about it at the start of the project. Time is now not on my side.

Hi Christina,

I’m going through this process myself at the moment. For me I think that as clean a ceiling as possible looks best. There are some otherwise lovely kitchens on this site which have extremely cluttered ceilings - they look a bit like bullet holes sometimes! (I feel the same about sockets and switches which stand out) Have a look for trimless downlights online and see if you like those - that’s what my architect recommended. All personal preference of course. Good luck with whatever you decide.

I would of thought that for a kitchen where you may prefer a more even spread of light the bulbs need to be a flush fitting so the light is spread over a wider area, if the same light was to be recessed then the angle of light would be reduced so in effect it would be more like a narrow column of light.

@Lifestyle_Kitchens, I think that depends on the type of recess lights you get.

I have just received mine and I'm really happy. They have 6 settings depending on the type of light you want, some settings would be used for surface light and other settings give a warmer tone.

The baffle is black but unscrews to change to white of need be, so nice to know I have the option.

They were not the cheapest but not the most expensive either. They are from a company called Ansell.