Landscape Design and Construction By Jason Elrod
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Photo provided by American Lighting
Create Ambiance in Outdoor Kitchens
T
he kitchen is the center of action in practically every home. It's human nature to congregate around food, drink and conversation. And this love of the kitchen is rapidly spreading to outdoor kitchens. But how do you
create the same comfort and ambience in an outdoor kitchen? The answer is to extend the usable hours of the outdoor
kitchen by adding thoughtful and well-placed lighting. You can serve up unparalleled ambiance and safety with energy smart task lighting, fun accent lighting, general area lighting and step light- ing.
Task lighting is defined as "lighting to see by." Not only do
your clients need enough lighting to see by when they are chop- ping tomatoes or reaching for a fire extinguisher, they also need lighting that does not cast misleading shadows, cause unwanted reflections, or represent color inaccurately. The trick with outdoor
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task lighting is not to mimic brighter indoor kitchen lighting, but rather to create small "stations" of light that allow objects to be visible when the homeowner is within the light's beam spread. Task lighting should not dominate or become the inadvertent focal point of a back yard. A series of small 1- to 3-watt LED bullet lights that swivel is one option and can be recessed into wood or even masonry over a counter area. Spaced every 12 to 18 inches over an outdoor kitchen work surface, LED mini-swivel bullets can provide pools of light appropriate for illuminating a buffet or a food preparation area, and the ability to swivel and direct the light provides endless flexibility for spotlighting tasks. When choosing outdoor task lighting, look for contained
brightness, warmth, and a high color-rendering index (CRI). This means a high lumen output with a beam spread that is wide
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