Lighting for the Kitchen: Three Layers, Measured

The short answer: light a kitchen in three layers: 30 to 40 footcandles of general light from the ceiling, 50 or more at the counters from under-cabinet lights, and pendants hung 30 to 36 inches above the island and at least 30 inches apart. Use one color temperature for every bulb, at 80 CRI or better.

Most kitchens are lit like a hallway: a grid of ceiling lights, all on one switch. It looks fine from the doorway and fails at the counter, because the person cooking stands between the ceiling and the cutting board. Good kitchen lighting is three separate systems with three separate jobs, and the numbers for each are known. This guide goes through them in order: what lights the room, what lights the work, and what hangs over the island and table.

How Much Light: Footcandles

Light on a surface is measured in footcandles (one footcandle is about 10.8 lux). Penn State's energy course gives the recommended levels in its table of lighting levels: "Kitchen (General) 30-40 foot candles" and "Kitchen (Task Areas - Stove & Sink) 50-100 foot candles."

The National Kitchen and Bath Association sets the floor for the work surfaces. In a Pro Remodeler article that measured a real remodel, the author found that "with can lights centered more than 24 inches out from the wall, it is virtually impossible to deliver anything close to the minimum 50 footcandles NKBA recommends, particularly with a cook standing there and blocking the light."

That is the whole argument for layers in one table: the ceiling can't reach the counter target on its own, so a second layer has to.

Layer 1: General Light From the Ceiling

Recessed lights are the usual choice. The retailer 1000Bulbs gives the standard spacing rule: "take the ceiling height and divide it by two—that will be the distance between fixtures." Under an 8-foot ceiling that is 4 feet between cans; under a 10-foot ceiling, 5 feet.

Placement matters more than count. Philips Hue's recessed light guide puts cans for cabinet or countertop lighting "12–18 in (30–45 cm) from the cabinet face." Cans in the middle of the floor light the floor; cans over the front of the counters light the counters, although still from behind the cook.

Put them on a dimmer. California's 2022 energy code already requires it: the California Energy Commission's single-family lighting summary states that "lighting in habitable spaces must have readily accessible wall-mounted dimming controls." Elsewhere it is simply the cheapest way to make one kitchen work for both breakfast and a late dinner.

Layer 2: Task Light Under the Cabinets

This is the layer most kitchens are missing, and the one that changes cooking the most. ENERGY STAR's guide to renovating with LED lighting explains why: "Under-cabinet lighting provides direct illumination of kitchen work surfaces. Most fixtures are out of sight and positioned to minimize shadowing." The light comes from in front of you and above the counter, so your body no longer blocks it.

Mount the strip toward the front, not against the wall. The manufacturer PAC Lights advises in its under-cabinet guide: "Ideally, lights should be positioned 2 to 4 inches from the front edge of the cabinet. This placement minimizes glare while maximizing the area illuminated." Mounted at the back, the strip lights the backsplash and reflects off a glossy counter into your eyes.

Give it its own switch. The California code lists "under-cabinet lighting" among the lights that "must be controlled separately from ceiling-installed lighting", and it is good practice everywhere: on a dark winter evening, the counter lights alone are often all a kitchen needs.

Layer 3: Pendants Over the Island

Height. Hunker's pendant guide gives the rule: "30 to 36 inches between the counter and the bottom of the light fixture." MOD Lighting's island guide gives the same range for an 8-foot ceiling and adds 3 to 6 inches of drop for each additional foot of ceiling. Hang them lower and tall people look through them; higher and the light spreads before it reaches the counter.

Spacing. Hunker again: "Plan to have at least 30 inches of space between the pendants," and "three pendants can hang with one over the center of the counter and the other two on the quarter lines. Two pendants can hang over a shorter island equidistant from the center."

The arithmetic follows from Hunker's two rules: two pendants on the quarter lines are half the island's length apart, and three pendants on the center and quarter lines are a quarter of it apart, which only reaches 30 inches on an island of 10 feet or more.

One fixture or several. A short island can take a single large pendant instead of two small ones, as in the kitchen below. A long, narrow linear fixture does the work of three pendants with one electrical box.

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Open shelves can carry a light layer too: a strip under the lowest shelf works like an under-cabinet light. Our floating shelves guide covers how much those shelves hold and how high they go.

Over the Kitchen Table

A breakfast table or eat-in table follows the dining rules. Lighting New York's chandelier sizing guide sizes the fixture at "about one-half to two-thirds the width of the dining table", so a 36-inch table takes an 18 to 24-inch fixture, and says to "hang the chandelier 30–36 inches above the table surface." For a fixture in the middle of the room rather than over a table, it gives the rule: "Add the room's length and width in feet. The total equals the ideal chandelier diameter in inches."

Our fall dining table guide works the same numbers for a full dining room, including the extra drop for high ceilings.

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Color, Rendering and the Bulbs Themselves

One color temperature. ENERGY STAR's guide says to "choose the light appearance number that fits your needs (e.g. 2700K for soft, warm and 4100K+ for whiter, crisper shades)" and to "select the same shades for lights sharing the same space." A kitchen with warm pendants, cool cans and a different under-cabinet strip looks like three rooms at once, and paint colors shift between them, as our kitchen paint colors guide shows when it tests samples under the cabinet lights.

Color rendering. Food and wood look dull under poor light even at the right brightness. The U.S. Department of Energy's guide to LED color suggests that "as a rule of thumb, it should be at least 80 CRI, but using your eyes to evaluate this in a mock-up is the best way to judge."

LED throughout. ENERGY STAR says LED bulbs "use 70-90% less energy than standard bulbs." That matters most in the room where the lights stay on longest.

What the Code Requires

Every U.S. kitchen has to have a switched light. The International Residential Code, section E3903.2 (quoted here from the 2018 code as adopted in Texas), says: "At least one wall switch-controlled lighting outlet shall be installed in every habitable room, kitchen and bathroom." Beyond that the layers are your choice, and the code in California goes further with dimmers and separate switching, as above. Any new circuit or fixture box is work for a licensed electrician.

The Short Version

• General: 30–40 fc from recessed lights spaced at half the ceiling height (4 ft under 8 ft), the counter row 12–18 in out from the cabinet faces, on a dimmer.
• Task: 50+ fc at the counters from under-cabinet strips mounted 2–4 in back from the front edge, on their own switch.
• Island: pendants 30–36 in above the counter, at least 30 in apart: two on the quarter lines, or three on the center and quarter lines.
• Table: fixture one-half to two-thirds the table's width, 30–36 in above it.
• Color: one Kelvin value for every bulb (2700K warm to 4100K crisp), 80 CRI or better.
• Code: at least one wall-switched light in every kitchen (IRC E3903.2).