Hi, Carol. Thanks for getting back to me. I've seen layouts with downlighting and ambient lighting together, and honestly, I just don't like it much. If I need to keep it, I will, but I was hoping to move to fully recessed lights in the kitchen, pendents over the BB, and the chandelier over the eat-in table.

My previous house had under-cabinet lighting, and honestly, it was almost never used. I understand the point of it, and it would no doubt make this layout easier, but I just don't think our family would use it. I do appreciate the suggestion though! I'll keep it in mind if we need to get more lighting there.

I'm not necessarily set on the grid pattern, but when it laid it out initally, it looked close to a grid, so I thought I would try to match it up. I went ahead and made the changes you suggested, and while it would no doubt add more light, I'm concerned about how many cans there would be. It looks like there would be 8 or 9 cans in an 8' x 8' area. Is that too many? I'm worried it will look like Swiss cheese. Thanks so much for your suggestions!

Think about a couple of directional LED recessed lights. We combined them with traditional cans so we could highlight certain areas.

The actual placement of regular cans will depend a lot on whatever is above the ceiling board - joists, duct work, plumbing, ...

Since the work areas are largely around the perimeter of the room, the centrally located fixture/ can may be eliminated.

4 cans would be about right

Assuming 35 lumens per sq ft

8x8x35 (lumens per sq ft) =2240

Assuming each can has a 600 lumen output, you get 3.7 - round up to 4

UCL will help reduce the number of cans needed and provide better lighting since the light source is in front.

Firefox,

David will be the expert as to how many cans you need. Good he has weighed in. The reason I mentioned adding ambient lighting is to do layered lighting (which is the ideal way to light) . Ideally, you want to combine, ambient, accent, task and decorative lighting. If you only have can lights, you miss out on the richness of layered lighting. You could get ambient lighting through cove lighting instead if you don't like the central fixture.

Thanks so much for all your help, everyone. You guys are awesome! I'm not sure if it were obvious, but I forgot to mention that cabinet 8 in the corner holds the sink, appliance 10 is a dishwasher which has a countertop over it, and the OTR microwave has a light on the underside of it that I can use to illuminate the stove if necessary.

David, I looked at the diagram again, and I think the area I need to light is around 12' x 10' (sorry for the confusion, I know I mentioned 8' x 8' for the light placement when trying to figure out the spacing). I believe I need to light the entire width of the kitchen and the length of it up to the BB where I plan to have pendant lights, but let me know if that isn't right.

Using your formula and assuming approximately 600 lumen output per 4" can, I get the following:

12' x 10' x 35 = 4,200 total lumens required
4,200 / 600 = 7 cans

I took a stab at the layout if I want to keep the grid. I couldn't find a way to get seven cans to look right, so I just increased it to eight and figured I can put dimmers on if necessary. The cans are roughly four feet apart from each other.

You might be able to do away with some (2) of the left most row of can lights since there is a row of pendants.

Ditto for the can in front of the fridge.

Where is the kitchen sink? Is it beside the row of pendants?

Yes, the kitchen sink is in the corner cabinet to the right of the row of pendants. The white thing is the dishwasher.

Ok, then you'd probably want to keep the can above the sink and perhaps have it controlled separately.