Friday, November 14, 2008

Seeing The Light In The Cooking Area

By Ned Dagostino

One of the more important rooms in your house is the kitchen. That's where you prepare your food. You should be able to have a clear view of the food preparation. Insufficient lighting makes that quite difficult.

More often than not, the kitchen is not properly illuminated. Ceiling lights are often obstructed by the overhang of the cabinets over the cooking counter. Consequently the actual cooking area is comparatively dark.

Your kitchen needs to be cheery and bright. Otherwise cooking will be a drag. Modern kitchen furniture has recognized this fact by manufacturing cabinet units which have recessed lighting fixtures. Leaf through a kitchen furniture catalog for ideas so that you can renovate the kitchen with these ready made articles.

Maybe you're good at 'house improvement' yourself. Or your spouse is. Anyway, it's a good, clean, easy and fun project! You may want to play safe and get a regular electrical contractor in to do the wiring.

Fresh wiring is a costly affair. You can try out alternative lighting systems which are readily available. Way lighting especially designed for children's rooms is an ideal solution. These are battery-operated and require no wiring. All you need to do is to pull off the backing strip and press-fit these dinky devices against the lower surface of the cabinets over the kitchen counter. When you need them, just give them a tap and they're on. Another tap makes them go off! They are the least expensive lighting system on the market.

You don't have to worry too much about the appearance of the under cabinet lighting units. The factory fitted ones come in recessed mounts. Even if you mount them on the bottom surface of the cabinet, they're not going to be visible to the casual observer. But you will notice the light they shed!

Rewiring the kitchen for new lights depends on how much time you spend in the kitchen. If it is minimal or occasional, then you can put this project aside for a later date. Cooking over a dimly lit counter for any appreciable length of time, however, is a different matter, and this justifies the cost of putting up new lights as soon as possible. There are so many really low-cost alternatives to the standard lighting fixtures nowadays that budgetary considerations just pale away.

Once you appreciate the difference these additional lights make to the kitchen work area, you'll quickly realize that there are many other areas in the house which could be brightened up with under cabinet lighting. So, what's holding you back? - 15252

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