Updating a kitchen nowadays is unbelievably expensive. So what can you do if your budget won’t extend to new units and appliances but your kitchen is still in desperate need of a serious makeover? Well begin at the end, in other words concentrate initially, not on what your kitchen looks like now, but on the sorts of kitchens that you would like to have, if possible. Look in magazines and showrooms for ideas and inspiration.

Now you’re not going to be imitating any of these fantastic looking kitchens, but you will pick up many ideas and get a feel for what functions well. And one thing you are virtually guaranteed to pick up on is how none of them incorporate extraneous clutter and how all of them are enhanced by their use of lighting.

But not having extraneous stuff around the place is not the same as Spartan minimalism. Most kitchens gain from having utensils, books, decorations and assorted small appliances strategically on display. It’s the stuff that doesn’t belong, or that could be put away but hasn’t been, that is distracting and mars the appearance.

On the lighting side of things, step outside the kitchen and into a TV or film set. The point is that these appear to the viewer to be, say, a fashionable office, or a beautiful bedroom or whatever the designer wants you to see. In reality they are normally cheap chipboard with a quick paint job - the lighting is what makes them look so much more. Apply this logic to your kitchen.

So the strategy for an effective low-cost makeover is 1) clear up and set things where they enhance the look and 2) sort out the lighting. You might also be rather surprised to learn just how far modern lighting has come since your present lights were first installed.

Do you, for example, have pendant lighting that hangs above an island, table or breakfast bar? Adding these is a very easy and affordable way to update and lift the look of the place. Even if you already have this type of lighting, you can bring in a more contemporary look simply by replacing them with more modern ones.

Modern kitchen lighting is characterized by the application of many quite specific light sources rather than just a smattering of main lights that attempt to light everything. Also the appearance of new technologies mean that you can, for example, position LED light strips to pick out a plinth or pin them beneath wall units to create task lighting on the work surfaces.

LED lights give off a bright, clean light that works particularly well in kitchens with their numerous reflective surfaces. By reflecting LED light from walls and tiles you can create fascinating ambient light effects not possible with incandescent bulbs. Their bright, concentrated nature plus the fact they use up little power and give off little heat also makes them well suited as substitutes for halogen spotlights.

If this article interested you then try these additional articles to find out much more about strip lighting for kitchens and LED strip lighting in general.