I've seen this somewhere. Maybe one of those gadget places such as Harriet Carter?

My electrician also just took out a canned light in my water closet and stuck another box up there.

It can be done, but I don't know how, either.

Was the kitchen a total gut, or were the cans put into an existing ceiling? The reason I ask is if your cans are renovation fixtures, they were likely installed through the small hole in the ceiling and can be taken out very easily and replaced with an "old work" ceiling box. Then you can hang any reasonably light weight fixture from that box.

If the cans were installed in new construction or during a complete, down-to-the studs renovation, they are likely part of a housing that is much larger than the hole in the ceiling, so it's much more invasive to take it out. It may be possible to get some kind of adapter that will allow you to mount a decorative fixture to that, but I'm not sure.

We did that very thing above our kitchen sink. There is a product out called "the can converter" that is sold online, and many lighting stores, but we got ours at Lowes. The link for ours is below. It worked great!

I have included a link to the one they sell at Home Depot, but it's a different brand than the one we used.

http://reviews.homedepot.com/1999/203079455/recessed-light-converter-kit-reviews/reviews.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: Recessed can converter kit

Awesome, thanks for that link Abfab! Seems to be what I probably would need.

The kitchen was a gut, down to the studs so if Audry is correct, that item hopefully would work.