In our kitchen I put in this type of track lighting:

In a rental unit I remodeled I used surface mount track lighting:

If you're going to keep the space above your cabinets, you might consider undercabinet lights on top.

benjesbride No, we are opening up the wall. Most neighbors did the same.

palimpsest The ceilings are 96". Our new cabinets will likely be 40" plus molding. Current ones are 30". We are adding under cabinet lighting but had not considered over cabinet lighting beyond the ceiling lights.

bob_cville I think track lighting will be the best option since we can't do recessed lights. Adding under cabinet lighting will also help and maybe come over cabinet lights as well.

Oh! When you said the doorway was to be removed, I thought the opposite. Great!

What's also really cool is the tension wire/cable track lighting or something like this (Wayfair)

We have a galley kitchen, and we also weren't allowed to do any recessed lighting. We ended up doing one light fixture in the middle (Hudson Valley Haverhill light) plus undercabinet lighting throughout. Our range hood also has lighting which is quite bright. All of this actually makes the kitchen plenty bright enough.

FYI, the tension wire/cable lights are called "cable lights", and they're definitely worth considering along with the various track options. We have a cable light run in our foyer that we like a lot - see pic (FYI, the middle two MR16s are LED and the outer two are halogen)

Use caution with halogen lights. We put them in our last family room and they get HOT. Comes in handy in the winter, but not so helpful in the summer.

With such a narrow kitchen, you need to measure carefully to
make sure when you swing the upper cab doors open, you won't hit a lite fixture!

That said, if you are tight for money then I agree with nosoccermom,
it's hard to go wrong with the IKEA track lights. Be sure, however, the lights
will aim where you need them most. You can pivot those lights (from one side to
the other) but not the position on the track itself.

Last week we had a custom Juno track lighting system installed with 19 LED track lites. The installer had never used it before and was highly complimentary of it, saying it was very well designed and extremely well built. We were pleased since we bought it because it was such a bargain for small, close-to-the-ceiling track lites - $24 ea. Makes a difference when you're using 19 lites and have to buy $20 bulbs to go with them, LOL.

LED is totally the way to go. We now have 19 lites with 50-watt bulbs (550 lumens ea.) in our master bdrm, that need only 190 watts of electricity to run....and they don't heat up the room like halogens or even incandescents.

++++++++

Oops, almost forgot - I was looking for a good simple DIY puck lighting system to illuminate a bookshelf. I ran across this one in Amazon which people use for undercounter lighting. Some reviewers added photos which show these are some of the brightest puck lites offered through Amazon, so you might want to check them out.

Note if you want to try connecting two sets together you should ask the mfg first; most of these DIY ready-to-go systems are limited by the size of the transformer as to how many lites they'll support before risking a fire hazard!

http://www.amazon.com/Cabinet-Lighting-Deluxe-Accessories-Included/dp/B00YMNS4YA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1441058652&sr=8-1&keywords=LE%C2%AE+LED+Under+Cabinet+Lighting+Kit%2C+3+Deluxe+Kit

jakkom Yes, we ran into that problem already with the existing adjustable light fixtures above the refrigerator, we had to adjust them so the cabinets didn't hit them.

I'm very interested in seeing your custom track lighting system. Hubby is on board with spending what we need for lighting and recognizes the lighting can make the space.

I think these lights are a cool solution to that problem:

Small Bespoke in Brooklyn Heights · More Info

Small Bespoke in Brooklyn Heights · More Info

I just want to say that I wasn't in love with looks of the Sylvania disk lights, but that was the best option for my space and now I never notice them -- except to appreciate the beautiful light from them!

raee_gw Do you have photos you can share? I'd imagine my space would need 2 - 3 of the Sylvania lights.

A neighbor with a different layout was able to add recessed lighting although not in the kitchen.

Their recessed lites are in a soffit, which is kinda what palimpsest suggested with the drop ceiling.

If your ceiling is 8', I sure wouldn't drop it.

I'm guessing there is a drop ceiling in that kitchen already and we are not looking at a concrete one in that pic.

I like the fixture over the dining table at your neighbor's. I considered a track unit (a curvy one from Ikea) but thought it wouldn't suit the age and style of the house and kitchen.

I'm considering the same style raee used in my kitchen with 92" ceilings. Or these PIXI lights.. In the comments there are suggestions for mounting on a regular ceiling. They come in 1x1, 1x2, and 1x4 sizes.

raee_gw I visited the management office today and they said no new holes in the ceiling at all. They are on site (in a converted apartment) and you can see the wiring running to the ceiling lights installed in the office. They were not allowed to chip into the concrete ceilings and then plaster over the hidden wires.

funkycamper I like your idea of Pixi lights! If we used them, we could only use two in the location of the existing light fixtures.

No new holes would mean a track light that curvey one?

Or maybe this?

Ruling-out the recessed lights is progress - embrace it.

Regarding the various track, flex track, and cable light options, as others have pointed out, you need to avoid interference between the light fixtures and the upper cabinet doors. To do that, I think you'll need really low profile track/cable lights or shorter cabinets.

With 40" uppers & 8' ceilings, you only have ~3" between the top of the upper cabinet doors and the ceiling. I think you will have trouble finding track or cable lights that fit there.

gaucho_gordo Yeah, it's a process. I met with my designer friend today who gave me some ideas.

What about this?

http://www.lampsplus.com/products/possini-euro-lilypad-etched-30-inch-wide-ceiling-light-fixture__20756.html#read-reviews-tab

Regarding the size of surface mount fixtures... I think it depends more on the width of your upper cabinet doors. If you stick to 24 or 30 inch wide uppers with 12" and 15" doors respectively, you should still have at least 24 inches down the center of your galley ceiling clear for fixtures. Right? Maybe I'm confused.

Jillius Gorgeous fixture! I like this one too http://www.lampsplus.com/products/possini-euro-deign-felan-8-light-39-inch-wide-led-ceiling-light__6f996.html

I totally agree with Bob. Personally, I would install two Pixi lights, 1x4 size, for general lighting, on a dimmer, and not clutter the ceiling with track or other lighting fixtures. I think in that small of a space, they'd just feel in the way even if they weren't actually in the way, kwim? I think they will make your kitchen feel smaller. Then I'd use UCL for task lighting.

That's funny, I understood bob's post differently. I thought he was suggesting that quality of lighting is more important than aesthetic concerns like cluttered ceiling or 40" uppers, and therefore recommending that Katrina go with shorter uppers and perimiter track or cable lights. I agree with what I thought he bob said ;)

Plus with shorter cabs there's the added bonus of the option for indirect lighting above cabinets.

funkycamper We just came in from looking at the Pixi lights and they only had 2700K in the store. I think 4000K is an online order. We prefer cool lighting that shows our true paint colors. The installation seems slightly different for the 2700 residential line v the 4000 which is marked commercial.

I was saying that having well-placed, usable light is more important than aesthetic concerns like using really cool looking light fixtures that will only fit in the middle of the space. Whether you do: use lower cabinets that swing under the track or cable lights or carefully place the lights so that the doors swing past the lights or use very low profile lights like the ones funkycamper linked to, the function -- good lighting -- is more important than the form -- good-looking lighting.

With that said, there are several different tradeoffs and compromises that can give you good functioning light and you should feel free to choose one that is aesthetically pleasing to you.

Thanks, Bob, as I understood your post to mean that good lighting is the most important and that there are several ways to achieve it.

@Katrina - there are ways to install the commercial Pixi lights without a commercial ceiling. I thought I saved some notes about how to do it to my Evernote but I can't find them. IIRC, you use a thin strip of molding to slide the edges of the light into. If you like the idea, you might search around.

I have recently been doing some cursory research as to whether I could can my recessed lights in favor of track or cable lighting. The sites I am on are asserting that track lighting is not designed for overall light and are best used for supplemental lighting. Thought I'd pass that on for an FYI, anyway.

With limited storage space, it would be my personal choice to have wall cabinets to the ceiling with undercabinet task light throughout. A couple ceiling mounted fixtures in the center of the galley would be for general/ambient light.

When we were designing our lighting plan I was on information overload with all the lumens and kelvins and rules for fixture placement and such, but ultimately lighting is very personal. For example, we had recessed lights in our previous house and I grew to hate the look of them. This kitchen (12.5'x7.5' galley) has two schoolhouse semiflush in the center, a pendant over the sink, and UC lighting.

>>track lighting is not designed for overall light and are best used for supplemental lighting. >>

That may be some experts' opinions, but has not been our experience. We've been using track lighting for overall lighting for over 25 yrs in the LR and just re-installed track lighting in the master bedroom.

For us it's the other way around - we have supplemental reading and bedside lamps, but the track lights are the main lights in each room listed above. The reading lamps are used ONLY when we don't put on the main track lighting; we can easily read with the track lights on but got out of the habit due to energy conservation. Now that we have installed LED bulbs, that's not so important now.

LR: 6 of the older large track lights, refitted with LED 65w equivalent floods, equaling 390w light in vaulted ceiling, 12x18' room dimension. These were cheapos, two 3' tracks spaced equidistant in ceiling.

MBR, as listed above, has 19 small-head LED floods, a mix of PAR16 and PAR20 bulbs 50w each. Room is 25x16'. This is the Juno system just installed 2 weeks ago. It made an amazing, noticeable, and very attractive difference. Our flooring goes in 2 weeks from now and I'll be able to take some photos. The Juno lite is very compact and one of the "closest to the ceiling" lights we could find, track or non-track.

My DH's office is in the MBR. He no longer uses his desk lamp at all.

I figured out a way to get my recessed lighting! I was searching photos of apartments in my complex with the same layout and found this one. We currently don't have upper cabinets on that wall so this could work.

I think a track or pendants would look a lot better in that location than that soffit that has no context.

xedos I was just looking at pendants. lol The management office told me that the prior owner did the work himself, he was a contractor.

I have to respectfully disagree with xedos. In a narrow kitchen like yours, I can understand building out a soffitt for the recessed lights. I'm not sure if your latest photo is showing the type of recessed floods that can be angled in various directions?

I have those "eyeball" types in my kitchen. Because our ceiling is cathedral, it was the only way I could figure out how to get good light coverage combined with an inobtrusive look, as the less-expensive level track systems back in 1990 weren't very attractive then.

When we talked to our electrician last month, before he started work on the Juno tracks, we discussed updating other rooms. He said if we wanted recessed lights that could be angled, what we had was still the only solution.

We were able to change over to LED floods, at least. We found the TCP brand much better - brighter, clearer light - than the FEIT floods. The specs were identical between the two, but wow, what a difference when actually screwed into a fixture!

I like flat ceilings myself, so I'd probably go with flat ceilings and a track with pendants and spotlights. But that soffit is a nice, finished looking way to hide the electrical as well, so you shouldn't feel like there's something wrong with that.

Definitely go with a single level peninsula though :)

jakkom Since we are now opening up the wall, I did consider pendants but am concerned about lighting coverage since there are no overhead lights in the adjoining room. The kitchen will now get far more sunlight and also have 3 lights sources (over sink, over dinette - partial ceiling will be removed; and over peninsula).

Getting rid of our huge refrigerator and replacing it with a counter depth one already opened up the space. You can actually see the window now. We are still opening up the wall though.

Oh, let there be light! I bet you love seeing the window.

funkycamper It's already so much better!

Katrina, I am very pleased with my new lighting. We installed canopy mounted spotlights. I much prefer the look to recessed lighting, and I like a minimalist fixture for an 8' ceiling. If you use a wide angle bulb (we had to order them) you can achieve excellent lighting.

My fixtures are MP lighting canopy mounted spotlights with an aluminum finish (X01 C3 - 1 NS NA 1 - MC). They were expensive and we had to wait for them. Each fixture is connected to its own junction box. Currently they are lamped with wide angle Sylvania Tru-Aim Titan covered halogen (but they can be lamped with SORAA LED as well). We found the Sylvania to be much nicer than the equivalent Philips. The lamp (= bulb) is naked so you see colour from the reflective part on top and the Philips threw harsh pink lines on the ceiling. The lights are on dimmers so energy savings are possible there. Because of the wide angle of the halogen, we only needed six fixtures to light our small kitchen.

For choosing ceiling lighting I was inspired by one of my favourite kitchens: Lauren Liess'.

As you can see, drywall & painting remains to be done.

Great ideas! Lauren's kitchen is beautiful and I love the hardwood floors.

Katrina, you wanted to see the Juno track system once we installed it. I posted a long explanation plus a few photos in the Lighting forum at: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3411158/m=3/install-of-juno-led-track-lights

HTH your spouse! We absolutely love the quality of the Juno system and the mix of LED PAR16/PAR20 bulbs we're using. Beautiful light quality and overall illumination.