Kitchen renovation wiring with new circuits and pendant lighting

When this Merewether family decided to renovate their kitchen, the electrical work had to be planned around a tight schedule, with the cabinetmaker, plumber and stone benchtop installer all booked in close succession. We met the owners and their builder on site before any demolition, marked out every power point, appliance and light on the walls, and worked out what the old circuits could and could not safely carry. The existing kitchen shared a single circuit with half of the house, so we ran new dedicated circuits for the induction cooktop, the wall oven and the dishwasher, and added double power points along the splashback, inside the walk-in pantry for the microwave and coffee machine, and at the end of the island bench for laptops, tablets and phones, plus a USB outlet near the fridge for the family's chargers.

The lighting was the part the owners were most excited about. Three black pendant lights now hang over the island bench on their own dimmer, giving a warm glow for meals and homework, while slim LED downlights light the main work areas without shadows. We fitted LED strip lighting under the overhead cabinets so the benchtops are evenly lit when cooking, and a sensor light inside the pantry that turns on when the door opens. Every fitting was chosen with the owners at a single meeting, and we checked the heights and spacing against the cabinet drawings before roughing in, so the pendants line up with the centre of the island and nothing had to be moved once the stone was in place.

We finished the fit-off the day after the benchtops went in, tested every circuit and safety switch, and handed the owners their compliance certificate before the builder's final clean. The kitchen was working on schedule, the family was cooking in it that same weekend, and the builder has since booked us for two more renovations in the area. For the owners, the best part is that the room now works exactly the way they hoped it would, with power and light right where they need them every day, and with every circuit labelled clearly on the switchboard so that any future changes, from a new appliance to an extra pendant, will be quick, simple and affordable to make.