It depends upon what the overall design looks like. Do you have a plan or elevation drawings?

One of the problems with recessed lights is that they don't light the ceiling, they light the floor. (And the countertops if your head isn't in the way). The best way to get nice ambient lighting is to have lighting that bounces off of, or lights the ceiling, and lights the walls more evenly. In a living room, this is typically done with the lamps. But in rooms where you can't really have lamps, like a kitchen, it's done with pendants.

Pal it's so funny you should mention that. I've been reading about common errors in home lighting and recessed cans in a room with low ceilings (mine are 8') can actually darken the room because they don't light the ceiling. This is why professional lighting schemes often use so many different kinds of lighting. You can light the ceiling with sconces and flush mount fixtures, and of course you can use chandeliers as well. Just don't expect cans to be the answer for every lighting issue. They have their limits.

If I had the space for an island, I would do this in a heartbeat. I have a smallish (not mini) lamp with shade in my kitchen now. It sits on a cabinet "divider" which sections the working space from eating. I love it, for the warm, soft light it gives off. Has a 3-way bulb for different needs. It's all I ever use, except for the recessed light over the sink. I will lose it in the reno and am racking my brain on what to do.... One or two of these would add warmth, and light the ceiling as well as the room.

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Ah, okay, so for the ceiling I have to have the pendants. This makes a ton of sense. You people are so helpful! Here I was thinking I could get away with something and save $600. Darn!

My cans light the ceiling as well as all of the rest of the rooms. But I have lots of cans. You could almost do surgery in my rooms. And I dislike pendants intensely. I have had cans for many years.

Oh, no...I need to start considering how to light the ceiling, too?! o_O

Argh.... I have short ceilings and bit the bullet thanks to GW to add recessed lighting even though I'm not a fan. I went with 4" cans that are flush so my short ceilings wouldn't look like swiss cheese. But, yeah, now I guess they'll be dark! My planned pendants are just little sparkley mini-pendants for a little bit of bling and glow.

I am not saying you shouldn't have cans, because you do need them in places like kitchens generally. But even with the bulb right near the surface and not particularly recessed into the fixture, the beam spread is down, like a cone of light toward the floor.

There is no beam spread from a can that will bounce light off the ceiling. Only a fixture that is below the ceiling plane (which includes flush mount fixtures that sit against the ceiling) will light the ceiling.

Look at where the light from these fixtures starts contacting the envelope of the room. It's not the ceiling

No, what you are saying totally makes sense, Palimpsest. I'm just not sure what it going to mean in terms of solutions at my house - unless I put a ceiling light in the middle of the cans or something...

The advantage of ceiling cans is to light the room evenly -- because of the spread. If they are placed properly the spreads overlap slightly. I'm entirely with westsider on that -- I like great lighting that's also adjustable and lots of it.

If someone has an amazing ceiling with plaster work or gorgeous moldings then that's an area that should be lit. If the ceiling is ordinary, I don't understand the logic of lighting it. The reason ceilings are so often painted bright white is so that they will reflect light.

OTOH, there is cove lighting which can reflect onto the ceiling from the perimeter.

It is possible to combine cans and hanging lights in various ways but I feel it takes an expert to do it properly since it's much trickier. When a room has layered lighting -- various types -- it's more or less invisible unless you know what to look for.

I see kitchens that have so many lights I automatically think "lighting showroom." Alternately, there are many ways to light which are overlooked because it's easier to dangle pendants.

We didn't put pendants over our island, despite our electrician insisting that he only did "high end kitchens, and all high end kitchens have pendants." As much as I liked the overall look of pendants in most kitchens, I wasn't quite sure I liked having them in my line of vision when looking across the room.

What clinched it for us (the decision to forgo pendants) was the fact that we wanted a ceiling fan, and felt there would be too much going on with the ceiling fan we chose plus pendants hanging from our ceiling.

I don't think you need to light the ceiling as in highlighting it. But I think it's good to bounce some light on it from below the ceiling plane.

One of the most evenly lit, pleasantly lit places I work has no ceiling lighting, it's all uplighting bounced off the ceiling and task lighting. You can't do this in most residential settings. But in any case I think its nice to have some lighting at the mid-level of the room for infill lighting and "sparkle" or visible source lighting--for infill lighting and for some variation so it's not too even or flat.

I have a bathroom with recessed lighting and with sconce lighting, separately switched, and a wall to wall mirror. I look horrendous when only the ceiling lighting is turned on. I look better when the sconces are on. I look best when light is coming both ceiling and sconces.

Just because your aren't usually looking at yourself in a large mirror in the kitchen is no reason to not take into consideration the same things you do when lighting a bathroom. The same problems exist in every room from single source lighting, just because we aren't seeing it in a large mirror doesn't mean that the problems arent there. Take a look at how unflattering some snapshots of people are that are taken in rooms with just recessed lighting. The lightings not doing that to just the people it's doing it to everything in the room.

We didn't put pendants over our island either. We have recessed cans throughout the ceiling in our kitchen, and a light fixture pointing down from within our skylight (which runs from above one edge of the island and almost to our range). That light eliminates shadow perfectly in what would otherwise be a dark area. We also have other lighting throughout our kitchen. If we'd put pendants over our island it would've obstructed our line of vision (so aptly put by cat_mom) which is why we didn't place any there.

here's a simple demonstration: take a flashlight into a dark bathroom. Shine it at the floor. Now shine it at the ceiling. Which lights the room better?

As others have mentioned, I only have can lights and always have a shadows cast when I'm trying to read or write anything in the kitchen. It's very annoying.

My room is so small, but I totally get the idea of how much light can bounce off a ceiling and make a room brighter. After all, before this all I had was a semi-flush ceiling fixture. I'm going to see if there's a way to add at least a small one in the center of the U, with the cans around the perimeter and the small, sparkling pendants that are more like accent lighting at the peninsula in combination with some cans. We shall see!

I also like the idea of simply adding two lamps to the island, if space permits. That is a very nice look.

My ceiling is 10ft in the kitchen, and 20ft in the adjacent great room. I have windows in the great room that are 3ft-6ft-3ft in width, 6ft in height. This repeats twice. Essentially I have 12x12 window lighting. The slider is then 8ft wide with a transom. I have a kitchen window. I have two 4' x 2' transoms in the nook. Again, in the great room an additional four 4'x2' transoms. I think I *still* need up lighting for this space. Most of my natural light will be coming from above. Even with cans, I probably do need a ceiling light.

The question is what? I don't want to obstruct my view, as the room is wide open otherwise with no columns or walls. For an island that is 52"x104" I'm looking at at minimum 3 larger pendants. :/ Darn.

Check out this old link. There are more if you search google for alternatives to pendant lights. I know it says alternatives to recessed but look at the pics...

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2570926/alternatives-to-recessed-lights-in-kitchen

I am not crazy about these ceiling mounted lights but I also like pendants. Maybe the idea or link can steer you in a different direction.