Yes there seems to be this wisdom with downlights that they have to be away from the edges and corners of the room to prevent shadows. It's confusing though because they then don't light worktops properly. They were positioned a good 3 feet away from the edge that in our last house's kitchen, and we had a run of units with no wall units above, so the only source of light was the downlights. It really annoyed us that we cast a shadow over the worktop because the light was always slightly behind us - made chopping etc difficult. I'm planning lighting for a new extension now and am determined not to repeat the same mistake though am still confused about how to do it so it looks "right" and we don't end up with shadows. Looking at your plan, and speaking as a non-expert of course, I'd say make sure you have downlights above the worktops where you don't have wall units, and also think about lighting the tall units at either end of your hob run.

Thank you. I was thinking much the same. 70cm seems to be the preferred option when I have googled it. It should then “miss” the tall units and give me light where I need it.

I had our spotlights placed quite close to the wall (30cm I think - it was my previous home) so that they illuminated the worktops. I didn’t have any wall units though. It was one of my better choices and never regretted it. The lights in my current home cast shadows when I work and it drives me mad. I think if you have lighting on the underside of the wall units that will mitigate any shadows on that side.

My kitchen is a similar layout to yours. On the side with wall units, my downlights are about 90cm from the wall, with under cabinet leds. The other side, without wall units, the downlights are about 60cm from the wall. I left it up to the builder to position them, so didn't give it much thought myself.

Since there will be led lights under cabinets, position for down lights on ceiling won't be too important. So I suggest somewhere beside the skylights, and some distance away from the wall (30cm-90cm), and also the positions should be convenient for installing. If there is a ceiling structure drawing, would be easier to point out specific positions.

what's more essential is, according to area of 21 square meters, it would need at least 10 pcs of 750lm downlights, making sure 500lx for every square meter, which is a best lighting standard for operation space. This general rule can be also applied to other space.

For lights color temperature, 4000k would be enough.

If you have a detailed ceiling drawing, I would like to point out the downlights positions for you.

There's a tip I read somewhere, to position the under cabinet LED lights at the front, not the back. This gives more direct light where you are working. I read it years too late for mine, but I think it would make sense. Then perhaps the overhead lights wouldn't be so much of an issue. It's such a trial to have to decide where to put lights and plugs before you have everything in place. It seems back to front to me. I wish there was a way to do it later.

In my last house I got my father to run a piece of 2cm stripwood under the front of my wall cabinets. It made them look ‘framed’. Then I got led lights on a self-adhesive strip with an attached plug, and ran them under the cabinets in whichever configuration suited best. The other advantage was that they were repositionable, and it was pretty cheap to go given that it was retrospective.

I didn’t reinstall downlighting when we refurbished our kitchen years ago from the previous owners because of the focussed effect of the lightsaber the heat! We have 2 fittings with 5 (now LED) mini spots one over the sink draining area and the other near the centre width ways but much nearer to the kitchen door, opposite the sink and strip lighting under the cabinets. What I have found in the last few years (I got them from the well known auction site) is virtually flat panel LED lighting which is flush to the ceiling and comes in different colour temperatures. These give the appearance of mini skylights when on. If I did this again I would choose round ones as the holes are easier to cut in the plaster board and if one is off angle to the others in the square ones it’s really noticeable. The light from these is diffuse and the shadows are much less intense.

Hi Sarah, i am lighting designer and would be happy help. Kind regards, Katie

Don’t forget decent lighting over the sink! Our spotlights (approx 3 metre ceiling height) are totally inadequate- we have a window in front of the sink which means it is ok in daylight, but the light is very poor if you want to wash anything up later in the evening!

I agree with @Sigmund Freud re. lighting over the sink. In a past house we made a sort of hanging gantry/light box and inserted 3 downlighters in it for over the sink. Also agree with others about needing downlighters nearer the walls for the wall that has no upper cabinetry; however, you could also go with some really nice wall-lights. Depends on your taste. Ceilings can end up looking a bit like an airport runway with too many downlights; they are a bit on the boring side. If you ensure you've got good under-wall-cabinet lighting, the others are less of a problem. It also depends exactly what downlighters you go for: how many lumens, their Kelvins (warm/cold/daylight), whether they're integrated LEDs, and their beam angle. All of these things impact on the effect you end up with. You could also consider a sort of false ceiling if your ceiling heights are high/there's not enough void between the kitchen ceiling and the floor of the room above to install the downlights. All things to consider, but my best advice to you would be ensuring decent (LED strip, not pools of light) under wall cabinet lighting which will make the rest less important. Finally, you probably don't want just downlights over that peninsula. There are so many fantastic pendant lamps to choose from for just there.