Kitchen Cove Lighting By Russell Neal At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Linear kitchen cove lighting fixtures can provide accent lighting from concealed location near the ceiling. Cove lights are ideal sources of ambient illumination in kitchens and can be used to fill the space between the topmost portions of interior walls with light. Virtually every kitchen has one or more valances (a space above a window), built-in cabinets along the walls, and possibly coved ceilings as well. Some kitchens have all three of these architectural features and therefore provide a variety of places where cove rope lighting fixtures and produce some amazing decorative and ambient lighting effects.

Xenon linear light strips in kitchen coves, like they do in all rooms, shine light up toward the ceiling. This light diffuses itself along the surface of the ceiling, spreading out evenly in a warm, gentle glow that adds to general lighting and creates its own subtle mood shifts toward the ambient. The space above cabinets is an excellent place to create such an effect. Small linear strips such as the ones made by Phantom can hide on top of the cabinet and produce what appears to by a mystical, sourceless light. These strips are much slimmer and keep a much lower profile that standard fluorescent over cabinet lights. Phantom CM series strips can also be custom cut to the exact dimensions of kitchen valances and installed above them with concealed transformers that hide their visible presence. The light then shines up the wall from the window and fills the top corner space between the wall and the ceiling. If the kitchen has been designed with ledges or coves around the walls, CM cove lights can be custom manufactured to fit the exact dimensions of these structures and fit any radius specified by the general contractor or lighting designer.

Most lighting contractors wire CM series kitchen cove lights to dimmer switches that work in tandem with cabinet and under cabinet lights. This allows residents in the home to create anything from supplemental general lighting to warm tones of subtle mystique. If the cove lights in the kitchen are fitted with low voltage xenon lamps or energy saving LED festoons, the user can produce special effects and variances in color and count on saving money in the process. Some homeowners even choose to leave their cove lights and in cabinet lights throughout the night, simply turning them down rather than completely turning them off. For people who entertain at home and have a high frequency of visitors and family coming over, using kitchen cove lights as night lights helps provide just enough light for late night visits to the kitchen or quiet, private conversations after parties, formals, and reunions.

The actual lamp installed in kitchen cabinet lighting should be based upon the color scheme of the kitchen and the general lighting sources in the room. If the kitchen has interior recessed halogen lights, incandescent provides an excellent supplemental “white light” source, whereas xenon will add a bit of a “golden” aura to the interior architecture. Xenon low voltage lamps should be used if the countertops are made from marble or granite with “cool” colors like deep reds or blues. Incandescent lamps do better with white and off-white countertops and cabinets.

A third lamping option, and provides possibly the best source of accent lighting overall, is LED festoon light bulb technology. Operating at only a fraction of the cost of incandescent and xenon, LED festoons can light both warm and cool colors and can also be manipulated to produce some outstanding special lighting effects. Even better, they can last anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 hours and save homeowners a great deal of hassle and money on replacement costs. One of the many advantages of energy saving LED lights is the interchangeability of the festoon lamps.

Should an individual initially order their strip lights with incandescent or xenon lamps and later wishes he or she had invested in LED, the lamps themselves can be individually replaced without having to install new strip lights. Why not consider using LED replacement festoon lamps in your existing strip lighting system?

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