There are patch kits in store like HD. I used one when I had my dining room chandelier repositioned. The challenge is to match the ceiling finish , smooth or textured? If textued, there are spray can texture products that worked well on my ceiling. If you have lots of holes maybe hire a drywallper to deal with them.

How hard is it to patch ceiling holes?

For a professional, not hard at all.

Can this be done well?

By someone who’s good at it, yes.

will I have to paint the whole ceiling?

You should.

Post some pictures, please. It might not be necessary to remove lights or there may be another solution you aren’t aware of. :)

Caroline:

Patching the holes is the easy part. Your light fixtures must be properly terminated at accessible boxes/fixtures. You don't get to just cut and tape the wires, then patch.

Thank you for all the feedback, and thanks for the heads-up on terminating the fixtures, Joseph. I don’t have a good pic of the whole area to post at the moment. The builder installed lights that look like this on the outside:

I’m wondering... if we replace with a slim model, I might feel better about them.

Perhaps live with the existing lights for a while. People need more lighting as they age and your room might appear bright while in the construction stage, but put some furniture and curtains in place and you might find what seems like more than enough now, can be ideal when you move in.

How many ‘extra’ lights are you talking about? Do you have a lighting plan you can share?

IMO there is never a problem with too much lighting so I think we need to see what you are talking about. The lights can always be put on dimmers.

Patricia, that’s my husband’s thought, too. Nearing 60 so...I did find a couple of photos on his phone that show the kitchen, the area that most disturbs me. We have a production builder so excuse all the garbage the electrician left all over. Initially we were just going to place 6 cans around the perimeter cabinets. Then, because I want to use clear glass pendants over the island (builder’s are there now), we added one over the sink and a couple on the other side of the island. When my husband met with the electrician to determine placement, he offered to throw in a 3rd on that side to balance it out, and of course dear husband likes light! So now we have a total of 10 in the kitchen and 4 each in the nook and living areas. Plus the 3 pendants. Ceilings are 9’. We were thinking this morning we should start by replacing with dimmable ultra thin profile fixtures and see how that looks. We were also going to replace or just remove the nook chandelier. We don’t close until the end of October.

That’s not too much light. I think we ended up with 60+cans in the house for 2400 sf. How much space for the 60 cans? You don’t have a window in the kitchen so I think you’ll like the light. I think our kitchens look very close in size. I have 3 windows so don’t need light during the day, but it’s great to have nice, bright light at night. We have 13 lights, not including the under cabinet lights. Even though the kitchen is 4000 kelvin, I do like the brightness there. But it’s a bit much for the living room so I’m going to try 3500 kelvin in both and hopefully that’s not too yellow for all the white in the kitchen.

I bet there will be times when we will appreciate the amount of light. I just don't like the look of so many cans...it was hard for me to envision ahead of time. When I stand in the kitchen, it feels so much more "cluttered" to me than it does when I look at these photos. Maybe I just have to get used to seeing something new.

Oh, haha...not 60 cans, Hemina. I meant he's nearing 60 in age, so he appreciates the light. I guess I should fess up that it won't be long until I'm 50.