Creating the best lighting design for your kitchen is like cooking a great meal. You have to have the right recipe and the proper ingredients. To make sure you cook up the best lighting scheme for your kitchen, use a lighting professional.

The biggest mistake is not having a good mix of lighting that meets your needs. Recessed lighting is great for creating a blanket of light, but not for bringing light specifically where you need it.

Sometimes too much of a good thing can be too much. "I have seen people not sure about what to do with their lighting keep adding recessed lights, instead of mixing the various lighting types," says Steve Birdwell, CLC. "The result is that they kill the room with too much light." When visiting a lighting showroom, be prepared. Bring a picture of your kitchen, if possible or at least know your kitchen dimensions. How tall is the ceiling? Where are the doors? How much space is there between the cabinets and the ceiling? How much space is there between the cabinets and the countertop?

If you are building a new kitchen, bring in a layout. It's critical to where you put the lights. If you are planning to update an existing kitchen, tell the lighting expert how much deconstruction you want to do. If you don't want to destroy the ceiling, then you have do something different with installations.

Consider asking the lighting professionals to make a house call. Once you have the plan in place, use the same color bulbs throughout the kitchen so that the tone of the floor, counters and cabinets will all be the same intensity.