topic Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting in Home

Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 20:50:24 GMT

I have flexible track lighting in my kitchen. It's not as bad as regular track lighting, but I do think it's out of style. I am thinking about having it removed, having the holes patched, and putting in recessed lighting. I would probably have to have about six recessed lights put in. I'm wondering how expensive this would be.

I'm getting ready to paint my house, and because of the tint on my ceiling will probably have to paint it, too. I thought this would be a good time to change out the lighting. It sounds like a big project though, and the painting will also be a big project. Has anyone removed a light fixture like this? Was it as bad as I think it will be?

This is a picture of what flexible track lighting looks like. You can shape it however you want it to be. At the time I had it installed, which was about 14 years ago, it was very popular.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

fthunt — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 20:54:05 GMT

Great modern fresh idea for new - those are dated.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

homedecor1 — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 21:11:54 GMT

@NickNack

Just had all the track lighting in my kitchen removed. Best thing I ever did!!! That track lighting was making me crazy I never had any light just shadows in my kitchen.

I have a very small textured popcorn ceiling and I was concerned the ceilings were damaged BUT in reality there were only 2 = 2" diameter holes drilled to hang the anchors and I electrical box.

The electrician just filled those holes with spackle and used a plate cover for the empty box. My painting contractor put a texture spray over those areas before he painted the ceilings.

I thought I was having a ephiphany when the electrician turned onthe lighting in my kitchen for the first time ... it was so bright and wonderful!!! (I will warn you after having crappy track lighting I could see the dust now! lol) I had a dimmer switch installed so I could control the brightness.

before:

after:

(See those 2 dark "holes" this where the track lighting was bolted in and the white cover above the door)

My recommendation would be to have a licensed electrician do it because it entails cutting the ceiling, and exactly doing the locations. It was a big expense but I love it! I can see in my kitchen which I enjoy.

They just finished the floor and tomorrow painters...its our new motto "One thing leads to another!" ...

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 21:13:33 GMT

Your kitchen lighting looks great @homedecor1! That's exactly what I want to do. Thank you for posting your pictures.

Yes, I will have a licensed electrician do it. I really don't want the expense of doing that and painting both, but it seems like if I'm having to paint the ceiling that now is the time to change the lighting.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

homedecor1 — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 21:27:41 GMT

@NickNack

our ceilings were never done in the house we bought & I knew if we didn't do them it would definitely "look dirty" with the walls being painted. I've been in houses where you can definitely see how dirty the ceilings are if they painted.

The painter sprayed them I think the prep of covering and putting up plastic took longer than the painting!

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

ScrapHappy — Sun, 04 Mar 2018 22:42:22 GMT

It wasn't my kitchen lighting but my upper and lower hallways that we removed the old dome ones and put in recessed lighting....LED kind. The old domes were dark metal and frosted in lighting. I wanted a more cleaner look. Highly recommend the LED recessed lighting. We also had to paint two ceiling in the hallways. Cost was just under $2,000 but that also included changing out master bedroom light and painting that ceiling as well. We put 10 recessed lights in the hallways.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

kaydee50 — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 17:25:06 GMT

We have hanging pendant lighting in our kitchen and we too want to replace it with recessed lighting. Planning on going to Home Depot and having one of their electricians do the work. Things are never as simple as they seem!

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

Lilysmom — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 20:44:30 GMT

@NickNack, I have recessed lighting over all my work surfaces in the kitchen and I love them. No pendants for me. I have a dimmer light switch for the fixture over the kitchen table and chairs and I love that too.

Good luck with with your project. I bet you will love it when you’re done! LM

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 20:47:38 GMT

I've decided to take the chandelier out of my bedroom, too. It has a medallion that the painters would have to paint around. I'm getting tired of it and don't want to take it down later and have to paint in the space where the medallion was. I will put a ceiling fan up like there used to be.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

mousiegirl — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 00:47:40 GMT

@NickNack I had recessed lighting installed in the kitchen when it was remodeled three years ago, and it is wonderful. Also, someone kept pressuring me to have two lamps hanging down over the sink, and more over the island, I refused both. There is plenty of light over the sink with the recessed, and I have a fan with light over the island in addition to the light from the range top, and the recessed in that area. so I have more than enough. the thought of cleaning and changing bulbs in those hanging lights turned me off completely, lol.

I would like to have recessed lighting in the living room, main hall, entry hall, and master bedroom, but may only get a few of those areas done as it is not inexpensive.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 11:03:19 GMT

@mousiegirlwrote:
@NickNack I had recessed lighting installed in the kitchen when it was remodeled three years ago, and it is wonderful. Also, someone kept pressuring me to have two lamps hanging down over the sink, and more over the island, I refused both. There is plenty of light over the sink with the recessed, and I have a fan with light over the island in addition to the light from the range top, and the recessed in that area. so I have more than enough. the thought of cleaning and changing bulbs in those hanging lights turned me off completely, lol.

I would like to have recessed lighting in the living room, main hall, entry hall, and master bedroom, but may only get a few of those areas done as it is not inexpensive.

I do have recessed lights in my living room and master bedroom. I should have done it in the kitchen at the same time. I'm excited about thinking about doing it now.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

gardenman — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 12:53:25 GMT

Just a note about lighting in general and making rooms brighter. If you have the old conventional light bulbs, you're limited in the brightness you can get by the wattage limit of the fixture. Many are only rated for 40-60 watts. However, you can replace a 40-60 watt conventional bulb with an LED that's much brighter by using a higher rated bulb like a 100 watt equivalent. A 100 watt equivalent LED bulb only uses around 15 watts so electrically there's no issue. I replaced the 40 watt conventional bulbs in my kitchen ceiling fan with 60 watt equivalent LED's and it made a huge difference while still saving energy. As long as the wattage draw of the LED bulbs are lower than the maximum wattage listed, you're good. The 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs in my ceiling fan only draw 9 watts so they're using 31 fewer watts than the old bulbs.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

SXMGirl — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 13:11:25 GMT

When we redid our kitchen, we put in recessed lighting and it works well. However, even with the light almost directly over the sink, I still have a shadow there, so make sure that you have enough lighting exactly where you need it. Luckly, I also have lighting under every cabinet, as well as the island.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

nyc1 — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 13:15:51 GMT

I have recessed lights throughout my kitchen. We got an amazing electrician who also recommended the smaller cans (not sure size) over the standard larger ones, and I'm so glad he did. It looks amazing. I also have lighting under the cabinets, which I love.

My electrician wanted to put a recessed light over the sink, but I insisted on a pendant for visual interest. It provides great light and I love the contrast of the recessed with the one pendant.

I think you'll be so pleased if you make the change.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 14:15:36 GMT

@nyc1wrote:
I have recessed lights throughout my kitchen. We got an amazing electrician who also recommended the smaller cans (not sure size) over the standard larger ones, and I'm so glad he did. It looks amazing. I also have lighting under the cabinets, which I love.
My electrician wanted to put a recessed light over the sink, but I insisted on a pendant for visual interest. It provides great light and I love the contrast of the recessed with the one pendant.
I think you'll be so pleased if you make the change.

@nyc1 I would love to use the smaller sized cans, but I have larger ones in my living room and dining area, which are open to the kitchen. I feel like I have to go with the same size but wish I didn't have to.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

summerwind — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 15:10:29 GMT

30 years ago we put recessed lights over all the counter areas. Greatest thing ever! Also had regular lights over the island and kitchen table.

In this new home, I want under-cabinet LED lights, very cheap, and my son can do it for me. I need all the light I can get now. May or may not also add a recessed light over the sink, have to live with it a bit before I know for sure. Current lighting casts shadows everywhere. Don't know who on earth comes up with the idea to put lights in the center of the work area of a kitchen.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

homedecor1 — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 20:17:41 GMT

@gardenman

yes that's what my electrician told us & he used 5000 LED lighting.

I had 6 installed w/dimmer. (i'm not sure what the 5000 is equal to but told us the 2500 would not be bright enough).

They are bright white -- and i walk in the hallway which still has the old fixture with light bulb what a difference!!!

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

ccassaday — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 21:04:59 GMT

@NickNackwrote:
@nyc1wrote:
I have recessed lights throughout my kitchen. We got an amazing electrician who also recommended the smaller cans (not sure size) over the standard larger ones, and I'm so glad he did. It looks amazing. I also have lighting under the cabinets, which I love.
My electrician wanted to put a recessed light over the sink, but I insisted on a pendant for visual interest. It provides great light and I love the contrast of the recessed with the one pendant.
I think you'll be so pleased if you make the change.

@nyc1 I would love to use the smaller sized cans, but I have larger ones in my living room and dining area, which are open to the kitchen. I feel like I have to go with the same size but wish I didn't have to.

Mixing the smaller and te larger doesn’t look bad at all. We have two above the fireplace mantel that are small. The other six in the great room are the larger size.

We put so many in the new house. We have the three island pendants plus several recessed lights in the kitchen. My dad said he wished he would of put some in their bedroom. Because of the trey ceiling the ceiling fan light doesn’t illuminate to much light. But with the tenor lamps it’s ok.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Tue, 06 Mar 2018 21:28:40 GMT

@ccassadaywrote:
@NickNackwrote:
@nyc1wrote:
I have recessed lights throughout my kitchen. We got an amazing electrician who also recommended the smaller cans (not sure size) over the standard larger ones, and I'm so glad he did. It looks amazing. I also have lighting under the cabinets, which I love.
My electrician wanted to put a recessed light over the sink, but I insisted on a pendant for visual interest. It provides great light and I love the contrast of the recessed with the one pendant.
I think you'll be so pleased if you make the change.

@nyc1 I would love to use the smaller sized cans, but I have larger ones in my living room and dining area, which are open to the kitchen. I feel like I have to go with the same size but wish I didn't have to.
Mixing the smaller and te larger doesn’t look bad at all. We have two above the fireplace mantel that are small. The other six in the great room are the larger size.

We put so many in the new house. We have the three island pendants plus several recessed lights in the kitchen. My dad said he wished he would of put some in their bedroom. Because of the trey ceiling the ceiling fan light doesn’t illuminate to much light. But with the tenor lamps it’s ok.

@ccassaday It's good to know that they don't look bad together. The electrician is coming tomorrow afternoon to give me an estimate. I'll discuss it with him then. I'm going to get two estimates and then make my decision.

Re: Changing Kitchen Lighting

NickNack — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 18:44:35 GMT

The electrician is coming tomorrow! Yea! I am getting four canned lights in my kitchen and removing the track lighting. I also decided to have the chandelier removed in my bedroom and put a ceiling fan back up. I'm getting tired of the chandelier.

While they're here I want them to fix the labeling for my electric box--not sure what that's called. It's completely wrong and drives me crazy when I need it.

It's going to be expensive, but I'll be so glad to have this done. Next I will have my house painted inside. They said they would be here all day.

I have to leave to take my father to an appt. I think I will have to put Henry, my 10 mo. old kitten, in my office while I'm gone and move his litter box in there. I don't want to do that but don't want them to let him out accidentally. When I have my house painted I may take him to the kennel at my Vet's and leave him there until the painters have finished. I know he'll hate that but can't come up with a good solution. I can see him rubbing against the wall and getting paint all over him. One of my friend's dogs did that one time.