Years ago a home builder would locate the kitchen where the rear door led in and it would be a small room that was off the dining room. Family members would enter the house, take off any wet shoes or boots and leave them to dry on the linoleum floor. Mom would be in front of the white caloric range preparing Jello to mix with Libby's fruit cocktail for dessert that night. The only lighting consisted of the double circleline fluorescent fixture in the center of the room and a 60 watt bulb in the range hood. If the homeowner was lucky she would have a walk in pantry but that was usually a feature on even older homes dating to the 1930s or earlier when home canning was commonplace.
In this era of cooking shows and celebrity chefs the kitchen has become the most important room in many homes. The wall that separated the living and dining space has been removed and replaced by a bar or counter that invites guests to chat with each other and gives the cook a chance to be part of the conversation. Kitchens have become an average of three times larger than their mid 20th century counterparts. Refrigerators even have built in TV screens at times so the cook can follow along with a favorite chef preparing a recipe in unison. There is always a dining area and usually an island for food preparation. The four burner stove that went from white to coppertone to avacado has been replaces with a six burner commercial giant complete with deep fryer, grill, griddle and a vent system that could remove exhaust from a bus garage. The monster ranges are now stainless steel, black, navy blue and even red. These modern rooms are now also places to do homework, pay bills, watch TV and surf the internet. I have been to small parties where the men all hung out in the kitchen because that is where the beer was. You can understand how these rooms become a lighting challenge.

Split it up
If you take the room and separate into smaller areas of use the challenge does not seem as monumental. This is where the term task lighting is applied. You have distinct areas where light is needed. The counters, the stove, the island, the bar, the dining area and the most overlooked area, inside the cabinets.
First determine the overall style of the room. Is it contemporary, country French, country American, Mediterranean or whatever? Browse some online lighting catalogs. It is best to start with the large mainstream companies like Seagull Lighting www.seagulllighting.com Kichler www.kichler.com. lighting.com or Progress www.progresslighting.com. These three companies along with Murray Feiss and Minka Lavery offer complete lines for everywhere in the home in every style. They are not upscale contemporary companies like Louis Poulsen for example but the are more like the Ford, Chevy and Chryslers of the industry. You will find some of there products gouped into families of coordinated styles.

Under Cabinets
Lets start with the counters. Here is an area where you need two attributes to your lighting. Brightness and color rendition. You want to be able to see your food that you are preparing to be sure something does not get in there that your guest will discover much to your embarrassment; and you also want to see your food and serving pieces in their true color. There are four light sources that are applicable here. Fluorescent, Halogen, Xenon and LED. I will discuss each one in order.
Fluorescent technology has made leaps in recent years in many areas. Under cabinet lighting is one of
those areas. The new T5 lamps are are just over 1/2 inch thick and and come in 39 watt (3 foot) and 54 watt (4 foot). versions now. They have excellent color rendering and produce four times the light, watt per watt, as an incandscent lamp. The lamp life is very good also, about 30,000 hours based on a 12 hour start. The only disadvantages are the limitation on sizes and they require special ballasts to dim. These ballasts are very costly.
Halogen under cabinet lights come in several forms. The two most widely used are those little disks that are wired together commonly referred to as pucks. I personally do not like them although a a few dollars each plus the cost of the transformer they are the most economical. The problem is in two areas. The lamps never last as long as they should due of heat deterioration caused by the fixture design and transformer issues. The little electronic transformers fail often and the larger magnetic ones have to be hiidden somewhere like a cabinet where they often hum. It is best to locate the magetic tranformer in the basement but then there could be extra wiring costs. The CRI (color rendering index) is excellent at around 90 out of 100. The strip type halogen fixtures are better. They are sleek self contained units. These come is several lengths and link to each other for a continuous runs with no shadows. All halogen fixtures are dimmable also.
Xenon fixtures are usually linear fixtures often called tape lights because they are flat and flexible and the lamps can be spaced as close or as for apart as needed., The cost and quality of these vary widely. They are cooler that hlgen and have an excellent CRI. The lamps last for 10,000 hours. They are low voltage so a transformer is required. I am a big fan of this type of undercounter lighting. On the less expensive side look at Seagulls Ambiance line and on the high end, Starfire Lightings Xenflex.
LED, or light emitting diode, fixturs offer the longest lamp life and the greatest energy efficiency. It is still in its infancy in residential lighting and will probaly change before I finish this article. Basically it comes in two colors. 2700 K (warm) and 4000 k (cool). A standard incandescent lamp is around 2700K while the new fluorescent lamps are usuually 3500k or 4100k for example. Go to www.lightsearch.com/index and search LED lighting and you will find many examples. Alkco Lighting has a nice line of LED undercounter lighting as Aris and Lincs. www.alkco.com

The Island and bar
The next area we will discuss is the island. Typically islands are iit by three or five mini pendants of which ther are literally thousands to choose from or with several recessed lights. If choosing recessed lights think smal and bright. Three to four inch halogen lights with 50 watt MR16 lamps work well. Try companies such as Contrast, Con-Tech and Eureka for a great selection. Many even have decorative glass glow rings as a nice accent.
Another interesting way of lighting an island in an eclectic or contemporory setting is with flexible rail. Your imagination can really be tested with this. Try Tech Lighting, Axis Lighting or Focalor Lighting as good examples of this. These companies can be found on Lightsearch.

The Dining Area
Now lets look at the dining area. It is usually a round table of varied size. The simple solution is usually the best here. Put a pendant that matches the mini pendants over the bar. That is where those families I mentioned come in handy. Put a circle of rail or match the recessed lights. Two recessed adjusable low voltage halogen light located 12 to 18 inches off the edge of either side of the table with make your table setting sparkle with color. Uniformity works well here but it is not a rule. You may have an unusual antique or vintage fixture that would be an eyecatcher in this spot. Once again use you imagination.

The Hot Zone
On to the stove. If you do not have a hood there a couple of lensed recessed lights will work well. Be sure they are lensed and utilize halogen par floods of at least 100 watts and in stainless.. These will be difficult to find. Try Halo, Lightolier or Juno to start.

What's in There?
Lastly is the always overlooked cabinets. A simple solution is using small, adjustable recessed lights approimately 24 inches away, spaced to shine into every two cabinet doors. A 35 watt MR11 flood works very well for this.

A Few Little Tips
There are a few other things to mention. A ceiling fan is a good idea, but without lights unless you have a high ceiling. In that case uplight from on top ot the fan motor works well to remove the dark cavern above. Be careful not to place ceiling fans where they are below a lightsource to avoid a strobe effect..
Never use recessed line voltage floods to light a kitchen. The heat will be excessive and your own shadow will always get in the way.
Wall sconces add a nice touch but most kitchens don't have a place for them.
Another little tip if you have space above your cabinets is to lay an inexpezsive piece of rope lighting up there as an accent and a night light,

I hope this information will be useful to you. I have listed some additional sources by category. You can find them all at www.lightsearch.com/index

Upscale traditional lighting- Nulco Lighting, Metropolitan Lighting

Upscale architectural lighting- Bruck Lighting, Louis Poulsen

Track and recessed lighting, Lightolier, Lithonia, Halo, Juno, Eureka, Contrast, Con-Tech

LED Lighting- Cleanlight Greenlight