You're getting too excited about the home stretch darling. It will look strange, and a cap would look bad...it's not that big of a deal to cap off the box and then drywall over. It's a pain, but not as bad as the pain you'll feel when people walk into the kitchen and make funny looks at the arrangement...and they will.

wait a minute.. do you mean 5" inches or 5' feet? 5 inches would be strange.. 5 feet would be fine..

I agree 5 inches away would look odd.

raises a good question.. if 5" is too close.. what is the shortest distance away that is no longer too close? 12"? 18"? 2ft?

We have a recessed light right above our sink which is in our peninsula plus three pendants over our peninsula a little more than 5" away. Here is what it all looks like together. You can be the judge.

{{!gwi}}

Jodi-

That was what I was wondering - whether it would look strange depends on how big your kitchen is I think, and where the others are placed - to me, it depends on whether it looks deliberate or accidental, you know? Why don't you post a picture to the board (says the girl who doesn't know how to do that :)

Another option would be to use a ceiling medallion for the pendant light (to cover a capped recess light oopsie).

{{!gwi}}

They come in a gazillion different styles & shapes and wide range of prices.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ceiling Medallions

As long as it is 5' and not 5", I don't see where you have a problem. Use white trim rings on the recessed lighting and they pretty much disappear into the ceiling when not in use anyway. My kitchen is 13' wide. I have recessed cans 24" from each wall, so there is 9' between them and a row of pendant lights right down the center of the kitchen. I think it looks great!

If you have more than one pendant, like Jodi, it probably will look ok. If it's just one pendant 5" away I think it would look funny.

Oops...I think a key stuck when I typed this. I mean 5" NOT 5'. There will only be one pendant. The recessed lights are spaced out evenly throughout the room. I take it the collective wisdom is that we should drywall this recessed light over? My contractor has already b*tched and moaned about doing that. But it can be done, right?

Oh...it's 5"? Well, that changes things. I'd get rid of it and drywall over the spot. It can be done quite easily. If this light is in series with other electrical, you will need to connect the two ends of wire that are in the box so the current can continue on to the next light.

You CAN"T drywall over a hidden junction behind walls. That is a clear violation of electrical code. The wiring junction must be accessible. You can remove the wires completely (then drywall over) or cap it.

Right...the electrician said that he couldn't just drywall it over because of live wires. So, we should be able to remove the wires, then drywall it over? We DO NOT want to cap it. if it comes to that, I'd rather just leave the light in.

We have a corner sink on our peninsula. Our peninsula has 2 pendants; the corner sink has one recessed light above it. The pendants are controlled by one switch, the recessed light another. The light over the sink is independent of all other lights, recessed or not. Note that the sink light is also quite close to the crown molding.

Personally, I think it looks fine. The reasoning behind this setup (yes, it was deliberate), is that when I'm at the sink I only need to have the light above it on, not the pendants, which aren't over it, nor the other recessed lights, which would be behind me and cast a shadow over the sink.

I don't know how far apart the lights are (I'm not at home right now to measure), but I do know that the lights work the way they were designed to. I'm happy with them.

Buehl, your picture is really helpful. I don't think it looks strange at all. I do plan on having the pendant light on a separate switch from the recessed ones.
I think what we'll do is this: if the electrician & contractor can cover up the light with drywall we'll do that. If not, we'll leave the light. If I can figure out how to post pictures I will do it tonight.

Just wanted to follow up and report on what happened. The electrician was able to cap off the light in a way that it could be drywalled off consistent with code. The pendant light is now basically where the recessed light was and we love the way it looks. If I knew how to insert a picture I would. Thanks for everyone's help!!