Should be a standard round light junction box, maybe a squared-off ceiling fan box if someone had replaced a ceiling fan with this fixture earlier. Either way, no problem unless you're putting in track lighting and need the screw holes in a certain orientation.

Leafy - I recently removed my fluorescent light in my kitchen, and wanted to replace it with a pendant light to go over the center of my island. In, my case, not only was the junction box way off center of my island, it was way too small to accomodate my new fixture and also there were several larger holes in the ceiling as well. I ended up calling an electrician and a drywall contractor.

We had more than just a standard junction box hole when we removed one. We had a big hole that needed to be patched and then the ceiling needed to be painted. It was a real pain because trying to match the ceiling paint proved near impossible.

Oh yeah, you don't have any idea of *where* the box is, it might not be where you want it, plus who knows what the big fixture is hiding?

But that wasn't the original ? - is this the only change you're planning on making, or are you doing a remodel? Maybe you should leave it if you think you can just saqwp out the light and not do anything else b/c guaranteed you're going to have to repaint. For sure the ceiling will be different color underneath.

Thank you all--you confirmed my fear that by removing the light fixture I might be opening up a whole can of worms. I'm not doing a remodel, just trying to get rid of things I don't care for.

We moved into this house last fall and it feels like I'm in a slump as far as attacking the things that aren't my style, so I'm trying to pick some of the easier things to work on. I was humming along pretty well for a while, and then pfffft. I haven't decided what kind of fixture to replace the fluorescent with yet, either.

Both our cameras are on the blink right now, but once one of them is working I'll post a photo of the very odd light arrangement in the kitchen, and ask for advice. In addition to that fluorescent fixture, there is a weird kind of spotlight hung just a few feet from the fluorescent box that shines light on ...drumroll please....the front of a cabinet, for no known reason. The mysteries of this 1969 split foyer run deep!