When we remodeled our kitchen we put in recessed 50W halogens. We were advised at the time to keep them lined up to the edge of the counter and not to far into the kitchen. The reason being that if they were too far out from the cabinets then the person working/cooking at a counter would cast a shadow over the counter. Also there is about 2.5ft distance between them. We are very happy with the placement of our recessed lights.

5years later I am now swapping them out for LEDs. I think I am going to settle for 2700k lights rather than 3000k lights only because the LED equivalents seemed to be brighter and not quite as incandescent looking (orangey).

I hope this helps.

The counter spaces with uppers will be better lit using UCL. The open spaces need not have so much lighting. Following are 2 threads which should be an interesting read.

long running UCL discussion

LED recessed can guide/ discussion

Some people do not like having too many cans - the ceiling looks like swiss cheese.