18/06/2026
The most overlooked element in a new kitchen is almost always the lighting plan.
Customers spend weeks agonising over door colours and worktops, then leave lighting as a single pendant decision at the end. By that point, the wiring is already first-fixed and the options have narrowed dramatically.
Sensio, who we spec on most of our projects, break kitchen lighting into three layers. Each one does a completely different job, and a kitchen that only has one of them never quite works.
Task lighting sits under the wall units and lights the worktop directly. It's the difference between chopping onions in your own shadow and actually seeing what you're doing. Non-negotiable on every run of base units with cupboards above.
Mood lighting is what gives a kitchen depth after dark. Plinth lights, shelf lights, a soft glow behind a glass cabinet. Switched independently of the main ceiling lights, so you can use the kitchen at 10pm without flooding it like an operating theatre.
Convenience lighting is the one most people have never considered. Sensor strips inside cupboards and drawers that come on when you open them. Sounds like a small thing until you've used a pantry that lights itself at 6am.
The reason we plan all three at the design stage, not after the plaster is on, is that each layer needs its own switched circuit. Retrofitting them later means chasing walls that were finished six months ago.
If you're at the planning stage and want to see the three layers working together in person, pop into our Washington showroom for a proper look 🏠
