Are you sure you can't do recessed lighting? There are retrofit cans that are designed to fit into existing ceilings. You just cut the 6" hole and push the fixture up through it. You might need a few other small cuts in the ceiling to route cable but they'd be patchable.

I also don't think you'd want a single fixture that's more than 300W--the light would be way too harsh, especially with 8 foot ceilings.

A good electrician should be able to install recessed lights, we have in both of out last 2 houses (both older 2 story homes) with no need to patch anything except the holes caused by the old fluorescent light fixture.

We installed recessed lighting into the ceiling of our 100 year old house with no problems. However, I've seen pictures in magazines where several (3-4) semi-flush fixtures are used and they look great.

don't panic. i had a similar problem to you. my kitchen ceiling is at 8 1/2', with a flat roof over it. i was determined to get rid of my fluorescents, and i wanted to go to recessed to save space. most everyone (two contractors, architect) said they thought it could be done because of the way the joists ran, esp. even so, i think they could've made small holes in the joists and ran it either way, in the tiny space between the ceiling and roof. turns out, we went with ceiling mounted lights the architect chose ( 2 metropoli--too much money, dumbest purchase ever). in the meantime, i found this lighting resource and bookmarked this page, in case there was time to change my mind, which there ended up not being. the link is for ceiling (flush) mounted lights. there are some really clean-lined, contemporary ones (and as cheap as home depot) out there, but you have to wade through through the entire inventory. i wish i could've bought a coupl eof these on this page instead.

http://www.lumens.com/lumens/search2.asp?SearchResults.SearchHandle=QT1DZWlsaW5nIExpZ2h0c35CPUNlaWxpbmcgTGlnaHRzfkM9MX5EPTQwfkk9UHJpY2V_Sz00fkw9MX5NPTk0fk49MTF_&SearchResults.SortAscending=False&SearchResults.SortBy=relevancy&search_freetext=Ceiling%20Lights&next_page=true&s_id=0

you'll have to cut and paste it into your browser--good luck

I personally don't like recessed lights. There are many flush mount lights on the market. I am including a link to one that I have really liked from ylighting.com. My taste run more contemporary than most on these forums but I would love the bendable monorail. On an 8ft ceiling the monorail can be a little imposing.

Best of luck and take heart!

Here is a link that might be useful: Vibia Energy Efficient Flush Mount

There are some really nice and modern looking flourescent lights out there. REcently someone posted a kitchen redo with some flourescent light that I really liked and I am considering as I don't want cans in my kitchen. They project too much heat in my south-facing kitchen and even though I don't like my old box florescents, I really did like the new ones available. I hope the new kitchen redo person sees you post and replies..... Look at some of the online stores and you may find something acceptable....

Thanks for the replies!

As for the recessed lighting, our kitchen is galley style and the ceiling joints run the length of the kitchen, so you could fish it through but you'd have to open up a section, and with only about 8 inches from the ceiling to the upper floor it would be hard to have enough reach to drill holes to the next joist and fish it through. Hard to explain here, but we already put one hole in the ceiling and tried this, and referred to an electrician who said because of the way the kitchen lays it cannot be done.

So i'm left with just one lighting option....

Thanks for the link homepro1. Yes my tastes are pretty modern/contemporary and I loved the idea of the monorail but once we installed it, it just draws too much attention to the ceiling and makes the room feel shorter!

football mom, I'll check around in some of the finished kitchen blogs...The flourescent we had already was pretty modern, but I really like the ones that seem to be semi-flush with cables. I guess the bubbly looking ones remind me too much of work! lol...we did have a circle one in the kitchen which we took down last night.

I'm hoping maybe i'm just not used to seeing the track in there, and maybe it will grow on me. I'm giving it til Friday!

*joists lol

Dana,
Which Track system do you have? I wonder if you can do some other fixtures rather than the ones you have now?

Homepro01

We're all kindred spirits here on the kitchen forum, but did you try the lighting forum? Maybe there's someone creative out there that can help...