You can never have enough lights. I'd remove the light in the center of your kitchen and replace it with 1 hanging pendant. The two recessed diretional lights do seem odd in this pictures. What is it they are shining on?

The lights were positioned over two chairs in the sitting area and were for reading.

The recessed cans are over the work area in the kitchen. Do you mean get rid of those or the two odd ones? I love it opened up so much not sure that I want pendant lights hanging down.

Remove the 3 recessed lights which were hidden by the overhead cupboard and hang 3 pendant lights centered above the new "bar area" that was just created. You don't have to remove the light in the center of the kitchen just have it on a different switch so you can choose which light you want on/off. I just recently did this in my kitchen and love it! My kitchen layout is almost the same as yours. Taking down those overhead cupboards made a world of difference in your kitchen...it looks great now! I wasn't sure at first about having pendant lights hanging down in between my family room and kitchen, but it really doesn't mess with sight lines and adds a great "break-up" between the two rooms.

Trista. That's exactly what I meant. This way the pendants will be entered over the peninsula ...

Thanks Trista. I love it opened up and can't believe it took us so long to do this. I think all five of the lights around the bar area should come out.

Yes I would take out all 5 recessed lights around the bar area. You can leave the others above the window and stove areas for task lighting. I took some pics of my kitchen with the pendant lights so you would have a visual..... which I always love to have before completing a project!

Trista please try again. For some reason my photos kept disappearing but they finally uploaded. Would love to see your photos.

Trista, your kitchen looks great! It's amazing how many people have the same kitchen floor plan! Thanks for your help.