Kitchen recessed lighting: counts, spacing, and placement
Kitchens are work rooms — they need two to three times the light of a living room, placed so your own head never shadows the counter.
Quick answer
A typical 12′ × 12′ kitchen with a 9′ ceiling needs about 9 six-inch LED downlights in a 3 × 3 grid at 4-foot spacing to reach the recommended 30–50 foot-candles of general light. Small kitchens still need dense coverage: even a 10′ × 10′ kitchen calls for 8–9 fixtures.
Calculate your kitchen exactly →- Target level
- 30–50 fc general · 50–100 fc over work zones
- Fixture spacing
- 3–5 ft between fixtures
- Beam angle
- 40–60° — tighter beams hold brightness on counters
How many recessed lights for a kitchen?
| Room size | Ceiling | Fixtures | Layout | Light level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10′ × 10′ | 8′ | 9 fixtures | 3 × 3 grid, 3′-4″ spacing | ≈ 55 fc |
| 12′ × 12′ | 9′ | 9 fixtures | 3 × 3 grid, 4′ spacing | ≈ 39 fc |
| 16′ × 12′ | 9′ | 9 fixtures | 3 × 3 grid, 4–5′ spacing | ≈ 31 fc |
Serious cooks who want full task levels from the ceiling alone (kitchen-task mode, 50–100 fc) should expect roughly 16 fixtures in a 12′ × 12′ kitchen — most people instead pair the general grid with under-cabinet lighting.
Computed with a 1,200-lumen six-inch LED (60° beam) using the IES lumen method — the same engine as the calculator.
Put the light in front of you, not behind you
The classic kitchen lighting mistake is centering cans in the walkway. Stand at a counter and the light behind you throws your own shadow exactly where you are chopping. Place the perimeter row of downlights 24–30 inches from the wall, so the beam lands on the front edge of the countertop, ahead of where you stand.
The calculator handles the field of the room — an even grid with wall offsets at half the fixture spacing — and you can nudge the perimeter row over counters in the grid designer if your cabinet run demands it.
Layer it: general grid + under-cabinet + island pendants
Recessed lighting is the general layer. Under-cabinet strips kill the shadow the wall cabinets cast on the counter, and pendants over an island bring light down to task height while giving the room a focal point. If you use pendants, keep downlights at least a couple of feet away from them so the layers read separately.
Wire the layers on separate dimmers. A kitchen at 40 foot-candles is a workshop; the same kitchen dimmed to 10 is where people actually gather.
How far should recessed lights be from kitchen cabinets?
Center the fixture 24–30 inches from the wall. That puts the beam on the front edge of the counter — where your hands are — instead of on top of the wall cabinets, and it keeps your body from shadowing the work surface.
What size recessed lights are best in a kitchen?
Either works; the math differs. Six-inch fixtures (900–1,400 lumens) reach 30–50 fc with fewer cans. Four-inch fixtures look tidier on a busy ceiling but output 600–900 lumens each, so plan on roughly a third more of them.
Do I still need under-cabinet lighting with recessed lights?
Usually yes. Wall cabinets shadow the counter beneath them no matter how well the ceiling grid is placed. A general recessed grid plus under-cabinet task strips is the standard two-layer answer.
Your kitchen, measured — not guessed
The calculator applies these rules to your exact dimensions and draws the plan. Free, no account needed.
Open the kitchen calculator →