Kitchen Lighting Design for an Open Floor Plan

Whether you’re shopping for a new home or watching yet another home improvement show on TV, you’ll constantly hear an excited voice tell you that the house is an “open floor plan.” To clarify, an open floor plan (sometimes called an open concept) is basically any space that has two rooms that could have had a dividing wall/door but doesn’t. It’s a space that has, for instance, a specific cooking area, dining area and lounging area that are not separated by walls.

Parents in particular love an open floor plan because they can be in the kitchen attempting to create the latest power lunch for children (and eventually giving up and tossing out yet another plate of mac ‘n cheese) and at the same time keep an eye on the kiddos in the living room. For those of you who haven’t had way too many kids, an open concept allows family togetherness and shared experiences. The feeling of extra space (a big open space separated by general use areas) is a welcomed relief in a sometimes claustrophobic world.

When selecting lighting for an open floor plan, don’t think that everything has to match. Because each space is separate, the lighting should identify each space with what we like to call a “cohesive individuality.” Mix up the lighting from room to room but keep some references throughout. For instance, mix your metals (we’d suggest not going with more than two finishes) from room to room, keeping in mind that you’re going to see multiple pieces in multiple rooms at the same time, but keep the same shape of the fixtures.

Even in an open concept floorplan, the kitchen is the beating heart of your home. Guests (and family alike) will be drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Kitchen lighting design follows the same constructs; keep things cohesive but allow the lighting in the space to be the focus of the kitchen.

Firstly, when creating your kitchen lighting design remember that layering your lighting is the most important factor in keeping your kitchen functional, warm and inviting. Just having a central chandelier won’t cut it; you need to have general ambient lighting (ceiling cans or modern led can lights are perfect for this), task lighting (bright’ish lights over work areas where you’ll be preparing meals or washing dishes) and of course the lighting over a kitchen island that provides both task and ambient lighting.

We’ve asked our lighting experts to put together some of their favorite looks when coordinating lighting in an open floor plan, and they’ve delivered. Let’s get some inspiration…

In our first example of open floor plan kitchen lighting, you see how these two gorgeous oversized Hinkley Nautique 49065HB-HB pendant lights use a different finish than the chandelier over the kitchen island, but are tied together by the spherical shapes of both. Using oversized pendants over a dining room table has become a trend we can get behind; they provide better light coverage without the central focal point.

Products Shown: Pendants | Chandelier

In contrast to the last example where the two fixtures (table and island fixtures) were both the same shape and different finishes, here our open floor plan lighting utilizes the same finishes and overall aesthetic with completely different shapes (Using Progress Lighting’s round Leyden P500316-031 over the island and Progress Lighting’s rectangular Briarwood P400048-020 over the table). This is a more cohesive look, making your guests feel that the two are coordinated tightly.

Products Shown: Kitchen Chandeliers | Dining Room Chandelier

Ah, we find here a perfect example of layering your kitchen and dining room lighting. LED Ceiling cans provide general (ambient) lighting, while the two chandeliers over the large island and the Progress Lighting Geodesic P500320-031-30 large LED pendant light illuminates the dining table. Using the same finishes and modern design style, lighting in the two rooms is differentiated by the type of lighting; sticks with candles in the kitchen with an LED geodesic disc in the dining room.

Products Shown: Kitchen Pendants | Dining Room Chandelier

Love the look of one fixture but need to add light in a different area of your home? The easiest way to create a cohesive look in an open floor plan is to use different lights within the same collection from your favorite lighting brand. Here the designer has used eclectic choices in styles of furniture (oak wood cabinets in the kitchen with a painted white island and a modern round wood table in the dining room), and to help keep the look cohesive they have selected the same series of lights (Progress Lighting Briarwood, three P50041-020 mini pendants over the island, and one P400047-020 4-light chandelier over the table).

Products Shown: Kitchen Pendants | Dining Room Chandelier

Doesn’t this image make you want to pull up a chair, put your feet up on the table and just set a spell? The designers here have used two different families of fixtures (the two Kichler Lighting Opal 52478BKT pendants over the island and the gorgeous Kichler Lighting Heddle 52467NBR double linear chandelier over the dining table). Even though both fixtures are different finishes, the curves and black lines on the pendants mirror the curves and lines on the chandelier, bringing a familiarity between the fixtures.



You’ve seen some fantastic options for an open floorplan kitchen, with one overarching thing. Keep the two rooms separate, but familiar with each other by selecting kitchen and dining room lighting that has a lot of the same clues, but not necessarily the same family of fixtures. This slight differentiation hammers home to your guests that these are two disparate spaces, though closely related.

Here at 1StopLighting, we pride ourselves on our huge selection, most of which is available to ship in 24 hours, at the lowest prices you’ll find on the Internet. Combine this with the best customer service around and lighting experts with decades of experience and there’s only one answer for where to realize your next open floor plan kitchen lighting dreams – 1StopLighting.