How to light the kitchen and the mat corner for early starts

It is half past six on a winter morning and I am chopping an onion in my own shadow, because the kitchen light is behind me. Twenty minutes later I am on the mat in the living room, squinting at a bare bulb during The Hundred. My flat is small, and its lighting was planned by someone who never cooked or lay on the floor.

If your early and late sessions share a few rooms with your cooking, lighting matters more than it seems. Local pages for lighting installation Colorado Springs homeowners read usually cover indoor lighting, which is the route most of us walk between the mat and the stove. This piece is about lighting both well, wherever you live.

Notice where the shadows fall

Start with a slow walk round your own home at the hours you use it most. For people who train before work or after dinner, that means dark mornings and evenings for much of the year. Turn on the lights you normally use and look at what they actually do.

In the kitchen, notice whether you work in your own shadow. Ceiling lights in the middle of the room are common, and they light the floor beautifully while leaving the worktop, where you are standing with your back to them, in shade. That is the moment you cut your finger instead of the carrot.

In the room where you practise, lie down on your mat and look up. A bare bulb or a bright downlight directly above you is unpleasant during any exercise on your back, and you will find yourself closing your eyes or turning your head. Notice too whether there is light at floor level for finding your blocks and your water without stubbing a toe.

Light the worktop, not just the room

Cooking for training is mostly about repetition: the same pot of lentils, the same tray of roasted vegetables, the same stack of containers for the week. Repetition is pleasant in good light and tiresome in bad. Light that falls on the worktop from in front of you, rather than behind, makes chopping, weighing and washing up faster and safer.

Under-cupboard lighting is the usual answer in kitchens with wall cupboards, and it changes the feel of a small kitchen more than almost anything else for the money. Where there are no cupboards, lights placed above the worktop rather than in the middle of the ceiling can do a similar job. Warmer light tends to make food look like food, which is no small thing at seven in the morning when you are deciding whether to bother with breakfast.

Any of this means new wiring, switches or fittings, and that is work for a qualified electrician. Your part is to explain how you use the kitchen: where you chop, where you wash up, which hob ring you always use, and what time of day you cook. A good electrician will listen to that and suggest where light should go.

Keep the mat corner soft and even

The light you want for mat work is almost the opposite of the light you want for cooking. Over the worktop you want brightness exactly where your hands are. On the mat you want soft, even light that does not shine directly into your eyes when you lie on your back.

That usually means light from the side or bounced off a wall or ceiling, rather than a single bright point directly overhead. A lamp in the corner, wall lights, or a dimmable ceiling light can all work. Dimming is particularly useful because the same corner may host a brisk morning session and a slow, quiet stretch before bed, and those want very different rooms.

There is one more thing I would ask about. Plenty of us use a speaker for music or a class, and a small heater on cold mornings. Both need a socket, and if the only socket is on the other side of the room you will end up with a cable across the floor, which is a nuisance at best. Ask whoever does the lighting work about a socket in the right place at the same time, rather than running an extension lead along the skirting.

Think about the walk between the two as well. In a small home, the hallway or the gap between kitchen and living room is where you carry a hot pan, a full glass of water or a rolled mat in the half dark. A light you can switch on at both ends, or one that comes on softly without hunting for a switch, saves a surprising number of stubbed toes and spilt drinks. It is also the kind of thing an electrician can tell you is simple or complicated in your particular home, so add it to the list rather than guessing.

A checklist before you call anyone

You will get a better result from any electrician if you arrive with a clear idea of what you need. Here is the list I would work through, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea:

• Where do I stand when I chop, and is the light in front of me or behind me?
• Is the sink and draining board well lit when I wash up in the evening?
• Which light in the practice corner shines in my eyes when I lie on my back?
• Could I use a dimmer in the room where I practise?
• Is there light at floor level for finding props and water in the early morning?
• Where do the speaker and the heater go, and is there a socket nearby?
• Are there any cables currently crossing the floor where I walk or practise?
• Which lights do I switch on every single day, and are the switches where I need them?

Take the list with you, or send it ahead. It gives a professional something concrete to work from, and it stops you being talked into something that suits a showroom more than your own mornings.

Leave the wiring to the professionals

It is tempting, when you watch someone swap a light fitting in a video, to think you could manage it yourself. Please do not. Electrical work in the home is a job for a qualified electrician, who knows the rules for your area, will make sure the work is safe, and can check the circuits you already have. Your role is the brief and the decisions, not the screwdriver.

A good company will explain what it proposes and why, in plain language. It should be clear about what can be done in your home and what cannot, and happy to answer questions about where lights and switches will go before the work begins. If anything about the plan does not make sense to you, ask again until it does.

When the work is done, live with it for a week before you decide whether anything else needs changing. Cook at the usual time. Practise at the usual time. Notice whether the shadows have gone from the worktop and whether you can lie on your back without squinting. Most of the benefit shows up in very ordinary moments.

Spring check

Lighter: do not worry about fashionable fittings or matching every light in the house.

Heavier: put your effort into light on the worktop in front of you and soft, even light over the mat.

The last rep

Tonight, while dinner is cooking, notice where your own shadow falls on the chopping board, then go and lie on your mat and look up for a minute. Write down those two things before you sleep. Tomorrow at 7 a.m., with the onions waiting and the mat already out, you will know exactly what to ask for.