Kitchen Hanging Light Ideas That Survive Real Cooking
By Metify Homes
Most kitchen lighting ideas online are photographed in kitchens where nobody fries anything. Ours are different. A Pakistani kitchen sees tarka twice a day, steam from the pressure cooker and a film of oil on every surface near the stove by the end of the week.
Hanging lights can still look very good in that kitchen. They just have to be chosen and placed with the cooking in mind.
Where a hanging light belongs
Over an island or breakfast counter. The best place. Open kitchens with an island or a counter facing the lounge are now common in new houses and flats, and a row of pendants over that counter marks the line between kitchen and living space.
Over a small kitchen table. If the family eats breakfast in the kitchen, one pendant over that table makes it feel like a place to sit and not just a spare surface.
Over the sink, under a window. A single small pendant here gives light exactly where washing-up happens, and it looks good from outside at night.
Where it does not belong
Over the stove. Never. Heat, steam and oil go straight up, the hood needs that space, and a shade above a karahi will be coated in a week.
In the walkway of a narrow kitchen. In a galley kitchen, anything hanging in the passage will meet someone’s head. Unless the bottom of the light clears 7 feet from the floor, keep the walkway empty.
As the only light. Pendants light a counter. They do not light the inside of a cupboard or the chopping board by the stove. Keep the ceiling panel or tube light for cooking and treat the hanging lights as the second layer.
Height and spacing over a counter
Hang pendants so the bottom is 30 to 36 inches (75 to 90 cm) above the counter. Kitchen counters are about 34 to 36 inches high, so the bottom of the light ends up 5.5 to 6 feet from the floor. That is above the eye line of someone sitting at the counter and just at or above the eye line of someone standing to work, so you can talk across it.
If tall people in the house will stand and work at that counter, go to the top of the range.
| Counter length | Number of pendants | Gap between them |
|---|---|---|
| 4 ft (120 cm) | 2 | about 16 in (40 cm) from each end, 16 in between |
| 5 to 6 ft (150 to 180 cm) | 2 or 3 | divide the length by pendants plus one |
| 7 to 8 ft (210 to 240 cm) | 3 | about 21 to 24 in (53 to 60 cm) |
Keep the row centred on the counter, not on the room.
Choose the shade for cleaning, not only for looks
This is the part that decides whether you still like the lights a year from now.
Metal domes. The practical winner. Smooth, wipe clean in seconds, and they push all the light down onto the counter. Black, white, brass and copper are all easy to live with.
Glass. Looks light and open and suits a small kitchen because you can see through it. It also shows every fingerprint and every bit of grease. Fine if you are willing to wipe it weekly. Smoked or amber glass hides more than clear.
Fabric, rope, cane and rattan. Lovely in a lounge. In a kitchen that sees real frying, they soak up oil and smell, and they cannot be washed. Keep them for a dining area well away from the stove.
Open top or closed top. A shade that is open at the top collects greasy dust inside where you cannot see it until it drips. A closed dome does not.
As a rule, keep any hanging light at least 3 feet away from the hob, measured across the room.
Six ideas that work
1. Three matching metal domes over the island. The classic. Black domes over a white or grey counter, brass over a dark one.
2. Two larger pendants where three would crowd. On a 5 foot counter, two wide shades look calmer than three small ones.
3. A cluster over a round breakfast table. Three small pendants hung at slightly different heights from one ceiling point.
4. One pendant over the sink. Small, glass, and on its own switch. The cheapest way to make a plain kitchen look considered.
5. Match the handles. Take the finish from the cabinet handles or the tap. Black handles, black pendants. Gold handles, brass pendants. The kitchen looks planned.
6. Pendants plus a strip under the wall cabinets. The pendants handle the island and an LED strip under the upper cabinets lights the worktop along the wall. Together they do more than one bright tube light ever will.
Bulb colour: the kitchen is the exception
Elsewhere in the house we recommend warm white. The kitchen is where you need to see whether the onions are browned or burnt, so the main working light should be whiter.
A neutral white bulb, marked 4000K and sometimes sold as natural white, is the best choice for kitchen pendants over a working counter. It is clear enough to cook by and not as cold as daylight white.
If the pendants hang over a breakfast counter where people sit and eat and the cooking light comes from elsewhere, warm white at 3000K is more pleasant. Use 7 to 9 watt LED bulbs, and choose frosted ones if the shade is open at the bottom.
Keeping them clean
Switch off, let the bulbs cool, and wipe metal and glass shades with a cloth dampened in warm water with a little dishwashing liquid. Dry them straight away. Once a week is enough if the exhaust fan or hood is used every time you cook. Without an exhaust, expect to do it more often.
For metal and glass designs that suit a kitchen, start with our pendant and hanging lights collection. If the lights are going over a dining table, our dining table light height guide has the measurements.