Crossposted from the kitchen forum ...

Construction has finally started on my kitchen remodel, and I need to finalise my cabinet order soon, and think hard about lighting. Let me preface this by telling you that I know practically nothing about planning lighting, and haven't been able to find much online that hasn't made my eyes glaze over (would love to hear of any good online resources that I obviously missed). I sat down with my trusty Sketchup model today, and tried to place some fixtures, but kept running into difficulties.

Some background ... this is a 14'x11' space, with French doors to the deck, pocket doors to a living room and an entry from a small hallway. The ceiling height is around 8' through roughly half of the kitchen, and vaults to 10'for the remainder. The vaulted section has a 4'x4' skylight opening. Here's a model of the kitchen from outside, with the roof peeled off (so you can get an idea of the ceiling profile).

I plan to use xenon undercabinet and fluorescent overcabinet lights, for task lighting and some ambient lighting respectively (and also to increase my total high-efficacy wattage for Title 24 purposes :-)). I am aiming for an old-fashioned look, so do not want to use recessed ceiling lights. In my first attempt at this problem, I have hung three small pendant lights over the countertop edge, the lowest point is 85" above the floor level. I am looking at the Rejuvenation Upshur for this fixture, with an 8" shade, and incandescent bulbs. My calculation says that the doorswings on the cabinets will not interfere with these fixtures. Will this give good lighting for the countertops ?

That leaves the other wall of the kitchen, which has the fridge and pantry. In this first plan, I have hung two more pendants (probably the Rejuvenation Rhone with a 10" schoolhouse shade, using GU24 compact fluorescents).

You can see all five pendants in this overhead shot ...

I would really appreciate any feedback on this plan ! Do you think there is enough coverage of the table ? I thought about a wall sconce in the empty corner (which will house a piece of furniture), but I can't run electrical into that wall due to the pocket door.

Does this seem like overkill for a little kitchen like this ?

An added complexity is that I am in California and will have to comply with Title24 ... any feedback on that would also be greatly appreciated.

TIA !