ᐅ LED Panels or LED Spotlights: Recessed or Surface-Mounted?

Hello.

For my future house, I am wondering which type of lights I should install.

Professionally, as an electrician and also as a user in office buildings, we often install LED panels measuring 62x62cm (24x24 inches) in OWA ceilings, which are cost-effective and easy to reposition.

This provides very even illumination, with no glare or harsh shadows due to the low luminance of the large surface area.

At home, I have already installed some panels myself.

However, when I visit modern homes, I mostly see only small bright light points, sometimes very many of them, especially in areas like kitchen countertops.

Often, there are already cutouts prepared for small lamps or downlights.

Is this actually practical, or does it just look cool?

An LED panel in a surface-mounted frame doesn’t look very appealing either, and I don’t know anyone with an OWA ceiling at home.

What alternatives are there for flat lights with a larger luminous surface?

Regards and thanks

We have a few spotlights, each above the showers and one above a toilet, plus three in the hallway. I would do it the same way again. In the kitchen, we have task lighting under the wall cabinets, which is much closer to the work area than a dozen spotlights on the ceiling.

I installed several 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inches) recessed LED spotlights/panels. You can see them at the top left next to the LP. They are almost completely flush and provide bright light. I can adjust the color temperature in three steps. I installed them in several rooms. The drywall contractor cut the holes beforehand, which made installation very quick and easy.

In my opinion, spotlights are not appealing, and I don’t understand why they are used so excessively in nearly every new build. Usually, when the homeowner skips installing dimmers, it ends up looking like a doctor’s office or an operating room. I would much rather focus on individual accent or focal lighting (since "spot" actually means a single point, not mass usage) as well as indirect lighting. In areas where you really need a lot of light (which is usually not the living space), panels work well. They provide, as you said, consistently even illumination.