Kitchen Downlights

Cut-out is the number that matters

If you are replacing existing downlights, the cut-out decides whether the job takes an afternoon or a plasterer. Many fittings here state their cut-out in the title. 65mm and 68mm are the common British sizes; smaller 55mm fittings suit a shallow void or a tighter spacing. Measure the hole you have before you buy, not after.

Spacing across a kitchen ceiling

A useful starting point is to space downlights at about half the ceiling height apart, so roughly 1.2m on a 2.4m ceiling. Then move them off that grid to follow the worktop: a light directly over the front edge of the counter is worth two in the middle of the room. Avoid a symmetrical grid that puts every light over the floor.

Work from the units, not the room. Draw the worktop runs first, put a line of lights along the front edge of each, and only then fill the remaining ceiling. A kitchen lit on a symmetrical grid looks tidy on a plan and leaves every worktop in shadow, because the grid was set out against the walls rather than against the work.

Fire rating and what it is for

A downlight cuts a hole in the ceiling, and in a house with a room above, that ceiling is a fire barrier. A fire rated fitting closes that hole in a fire. If your kitchen has a bedroom or a loft room above it, this is not optional and a fire hood is the alternative where the fitting itself is not rated.

IP rating near a sink

Away from water, IP20 is normal. Directly above a sink, and in any kitchen where the ceiling takes steam from a hob without an extractor, an IP65 fitting is the sensible choice. The rating is on almost every product; the first digit is dust, the second is water.

Insulation is the related question. Where a downlight sits under a loft with insulation laid over it, the fitting needs to be rated for insulation contact or it needs a physical clearance around it. Covering an unrated fitting is a fire risk and it also shortens the life of the LED, which is why fittings in that position fail first.

GU10 against integral LED

Many of these take a GU10 lamp. That means a failed lamp is a two pound part rather than a fitting to cut out of the ceiling. Integral LED downlights are slimmer and often brighter for the watt, but when the LED fails the whole fitting is scrap. In a kitchen with fifteen downlights, that difference compounds.

Bezel colour

White and black lead here, with matt white, satin nickel and polished chrome behind them. White disappears into a white ceiling. Black reads as a series of deliberate points and suits a kitchen with dark handles, dark tap ware or a dark island.

Beam angle finishes the job. A 36 degree lamp makes a tighter pool and suits a higher ceiling; a 60 degree lamp spreads and suits a standard 2.4m kitchen where the lights are further apart than ideal. Mixing angles across one ceiling is visible as uneven scallops on the wall, so pick one and use it throughout.