Planning Recessed Lighting: Spacing, Colour Temperature and Common Regrets

Recessed lighting is the most requested lighting job we do and the one most likely to be regretted when it is planned on the day of installation instead of before it.

Spacing

The working rule is ceiling height divided by two, in feet. An eight-foot ceiling wants lights roughly four feet apart; a ten-foot ceiling roughly five. Keep the outer row about two to three feet off the walls so you light the walls rather than scallop them, and never centre a light on a room just because the room has a centre.

Light the task, not the floor

The best-lit kitchens do not have a symmetrical grid. They have lights over the counter edge where you actually chop, plus separate under-cabinet lighting, plus something over the island. A perfect grid puts every light behind you and every shadow on your cutting board.

Colour temperature

• 2700K — warm, incandescent-like. Living rooms, bedrooms.
• 3000K — the safe all-rounder for most of a home.
• 3500–4000K — kitchens, laundry, garages, workshops.
• 5000K — task and shop only. In a living room it reads as a car park.

Pick one temperature per sightline. Mixing 2700K and 4000K across an open-plan space is the single most common thing we get called back about, and there is no fixing it except by replacing fixtures.

Dimming

Decide before purchase. Not all LED fixtures dim, and not all dimmers work with all LEDs — mismatches cause flicker, buzzing and a dead zone at the bottom of the range. Specify the dimmer and the fixture together, and put separate zones on separate dimmers so you can light a room for cooking or for a film.

What can go wrong in the ceiling

Joists, HVAC ducts, plumbing and existing wiring do not care about your layout. Insulation contact ratings matter in attics. And any hole in a ceiling below a conditioned space is an air-leakage path unless the housing is airtight-rated. This is why we mark the layout, verify the cavity, and only then cut.

Common regrets

1. Too many lights, all on one switch, at one brightness.
2. Mixed colour temperatures in one open space.
3. Lights placed for symmetry rather than for where you stand.
4. No dimming.
5. Non-dimmable bulbs bought later to replace the originals.

Planning a room? See lighting installation, or smart home wiring if you want the zones controllable from the wall and the app.