I am building a house and I need to make a final decision on the position, number and size of my island pendants. I dont have any great pictures since it is still under construction.

My island is just shy of 11 feet long and my ceilings are about 10 foot high. My ceilings are tongue and groove doug fir with large timbers evenly spaced (aka timber frame home).

My questions are as follows:

1. In short, I'm trying to decide on whether to go with a translucent globe or an opaque globe for my island pendant lights. Should the light just project down (opaque globe) or should I use a translucent globe that would allow the light to shine up as well as down. I already have other can lights in the ceiling giving me a lot of down light. As a result, I was thinking these pendants should also shine the light up to provide some ambient lighting, especially since my ceiling, being wood, will absorb a lot of light.

This is the style of light fixture I"m considering.

2. How many and how large should the pendants be? I've heard an odd number will look better. I'm considering either two large ones between 24 and 28 inches in diameter or 3 smaller ones about 20 inches in diameter.

thanks