Island lighting advice

11 years ago

We are building a three-story townhome with a very open space floor plan. The main floor is essentially one large room with a galley-style kitchen at one end (row of white cabinets against one wall with a 9 foot black island in front of it), dining area next to the kitchen and living area next to the dining area. The house is very contemporary. I'm trying to decide on lighting for the island and dining area. There will be recessed lights for general lighting and other sources of light as well so this lighting will mostly be decorative and to highlight certain areas of the room. I have my heart set on this light (in chrome) from RH but can't decide whether to put it in the dining area (which will essentially put it in the middle of the room) with pendant lights over the island or whether we should just use this fixture over the island itself and forego a hanging light in the dining area. I would love some advice if anyone has any thoughts! Thanks!

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Comments (6)

kiwi_bird
11 years ago
Your house sounds similar to mine. We ended up going with the feature lights over the island and just using the cans over the dining table, but that is because we want to highlight the stone on the island, and because the island is where the the ceiling is the highest. Which area to you want o highlight? Do you have a floor plan we could see?
Oaktown
11 years ago
We have the larger version of that light in our dining room. If you are at all concerned about task lighting, I would recommend NOT using that fixture over the island.
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namarie
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks! I've attached the general floor plan. Right now we don't actu even intend to use the dining area as a dining area but rather will put my baby grand there. Part of me would like to highlight it, but I'm also worried how the piano is ultimately going to look in the middle of the long room, even if the room is clearly grouped into different areas.

Oaktown, I don't think I'm concerned about task lighting but would hope it at least produces some light. Do you think the light would look ok over an island? I am concerned about the unshielded lights being in people's eyes over the island.
Oaktown
11 years ago
I don't think glare is a problem, because the bulbs are not very bright (only 30W).

The lighting is fine enough for dining (and it's not the only lighting in our dining area), but I definitely wouldn't want to rely on it to wash dishes, cut vegetables, etc.

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namarie
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh my goodness! I remember seeing that kitchen and loving the way it looked but thinking how impractical it was. I didn't recognize the light fixture but you are right! Thanks! It helps to see it in front of the black island like that.
sjhockeyfan325
11 years ago
In my previous home, I bought a light fixture I loved for over the (small) island. It was gorgeous, but it was so impractical. I couldn't see anything! I ended up prepping mostly on the secondary prep space because that had fabulous halogen task lighting. I'd hang that great fixture over the piano/table.