From meal prep to romantic dinner: the innovative LED strips that let you set the mood

The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s a beloved cliche, because it’s true; even as modern life pulls our attention in all directions, the kitchen remains a sacred space where connection and intimacy thrive. Whether you’re trying out a new recipe for the first time, meal prepping for a busy week, or hosting a lavish three-course dinner party, a well-designed kitchen encourages you to retreat from the world and find presence in the moment. 

As new, innovative products and materials emerge, many kitchen designers are embracing the opportunity to create spaces that are more than just functional. Now, kitchens are an experience, with built-in features like LED lighting for mood and ambience. Considering how much time we spend in the kitchen, it makes sense to design for pleasure. 

One such pleasure is the ability to change the brightness and colour temperature of your lights to suit the mood. A cool white light can be ideal for complex tasks and daylight hours, but when the sun sets, and the wine is uncorked, a soft, warm white is the perfect way to create a relaxed ambience. 

“For a long time, LED lights have been either cool or warm with a fixed brightness, but with innovative products like Domus Line’s D-Motion Dual Colour, you can now shift between the two at the touch of a button,” says Marty Boakes, Product Innovation and Design Director at FIT. 

“This means you have control over the colour temperature throughout the day, and you can switch depending on the task or mood you want to set. By adjusting the brightness and temperature, you can also tune the light to match other lights in your home. Gone are the days of installing an LED strip only to find it’s a slightly different colour to your existing lights!”

The Domus Line LED range is one of FIT’s top sellers, in part due to its intelligent, yet surprisingly simple design. While some LED lighting systems have a daunting number of buttons and remotes, Domus Line’s Giro Remote Control System neatly packages all temperature and brightness controls within one elegant switch, giving you effortless control over multiple lighting units. The LED strips are also incredibly easy to install, which hasn’t always been the case.    

“In the past, kitchen manufacturers have shied away from lighting because it has been more of a specialist electrical job. But now, with the ease of LED strip lighting, most kitchen designers and cabinet makers are integrating LED lighting into their designs,” Marty explains.

“One of the key innovations found in the Domus Line AT6 Pro and SE H4-24 Pro is the ability to freecut. Older LED strips needed to be cut at exact predetermined increments, or you’d end up with a piece of the light that didn’t work. With the freecut feature, you can cut the strip absolutely anywhere, allowing for more flexibility in your design.”

Thanks to D-Motion Dual Colour and Freecut innovation, kitchen designers are no longer restricted to specific lengths and one colour temperature. With the freedom to illuminate whatever you like, these products are truly expanding the realm of possibility for lighting in the home. 

“There’s more lighting going into kitchens than ever before, but it’s not just kitchens. We’re seeing people add lighting to wardrobes and bathrooms — we even did a recent job where LED strips were installed in the living room to create the effect of a floating ceiling,” Marty says.

This ease of access to beautiful, quality lighting products encourages playful interior design. With the flick of a switch, you can transform the room, curating the mood to suit any time of day. It’s a simple luxury that adds a touch of magic to the mundane rituals of everyday life — which, after all, is what good designers hope to achieve.   

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