It depends the sconce. It depends an accurately drawn elevation of the kitchen wall, until anyone can proffer good or accurate advice.

That drawing should be to scale and not less than 1/2 inch to ONE foot

I think it depends on how much task your sconces can light up. If you have a 30 inch sink, can your sconce throw a 30 inch wide path of task bright light to light the whole sink area? Will one sconce be enough to light the few feet of counter up enough to your task needs? Do you have other lighting in the kitchen and the task lights are being utilized as more spot light specific rather than general task lighting?

@beesneeds Good thought! I was planning on 3 sconces with 3’ in between. Perhaps I should consider a double light sconce over the sink or a matching pendant light and put the other two 3 1/2’ away. The only other lighting are 2 pendant lights on each side of the range hood which has bright lights.

@JAN MOYER I might be able to do an elevation drawing but I still have other parts of the house to finalize this week.

Are the two pendants and the three sconces the entirety of the lighting in the kitchen? What sconces did you have in mind?

@beesneeds Yes those lights plus the range hood lights would be the only lights. Abou About 10’ to the left of the island are 2 large west facing windows and a light over the open stairs down. Sorry i dont have the plans yet. With a vaulted ceiling i don’t think recessed lights would be a better choice. i could do 3 pendant lights instead but all those long wires are not my cup of tea. i was just thinking of putting the third pendant light over the sink and instead of 2 scoces 2 15" black adjutable, dimmable linear picture lights on a separate swich. Or maybe 3 picture lights? Here’s a pic of another ceiling like i will have only mine will not be white.

Ok, this might sound like an odd question. Is this going to be a display kitchen or a working kitchen?

Both lol! I cook all my meals and love to cook so I use the kitchen all the time and it‘s important that it be beautiful to me! I pIaced my cooktop on the island so I would have a view of the mountains while I cook.

If you are going to be using it as a working kitchen, you are going to need more than display lighting then. How much work lighting you will need to add or options on how to add it in will depend on how your kitchen drawings read.

@beesneeds I thought the dimmable 15” picture lights might be a good alternative since they are daylight LED bulbs and swivel. I really don’t want 5 pendant light wires in the kitchen. If I put 3 ceiling dome or recessed lights in the vaulted ceiling the light will be more twords the floor in between the sink counter and the island. That’s my hiccup.

If you feel that amount of light is comfortable to you, then use it. If you aren't sure, you could do a test. Take brackets and do a temporary hang of a light like that and work under it for a few days. See if you like it, or if you want/need more light. Do this over a counter space, not your sink space. It is just a temporary test hang after all. Use a plug in light of similar brightness to what you are anticipating your hardwired light will be. Of course the wall you set up your test on is likely not going to be the same space as the planned wall- but it should give you a decent feel for your lighting.

If you find you don't want/need more light, great. If you find you do want more, then plans for that should be made. How that happens then is after you are able to post plans and it gives more info for folks to help more.

I would think about architectural lighting first vs decorative lighting. It would be good to get some sconces with up and down lighting to throw light up the walls, potentially off the ceiling, and provide ambient light, not only counter task lighting. Also what is the configuration of your hood in relation to the pendents? How will it not block that light or create shadows?

@Kendrah I was thinking about up/down as well but they would need to have an arm to project at least 10” from the wall and I wonder how much light would be reflected off a vaulted wood ceiling. I do plan on hanging a larger mirror above the counter to reflect some light. There is a picture of my island range hood in one of my posts below. I dont think it will create shadows with the island being 40+" away.

@User Yes, I definitely do not want an underlit kitchen and my options are pendant lights or wall lights as the vaulted ceilings are SIPs.. I’ve pretty much decided to have wiring for 3 wall lights over the counter and experiment with different configurations of lights. So my decision is still how high the wall lights should be to be most effective.

Look at the lumen output of the led bulb or light driver you are considering. Some may accept narrow spot, wide spot or flood. You should aim for at least 450 lumens at the counter surface. It's going to be challenging because sconces are generally ambient and not task lighting. Reading lights are task oriented, but not as decorative.

@dan1888 Good points, thank you! I’m leaning towards 3 wall lights like these. They extend almost 15”, can be hardwired, dimmable and I can use LED bulbs.

3 watts may not be the more functional amount of light. See what bulbs you can choose. 17.5w A series bulbs from Costco put out 1600 lumens in a flood pattern with a 3000K bright white color and 90 CRI color rendering index. You may need less fixtures spaced farther apart when used with dimmers. I wouldn't think 3 watts will be enough.

Good point @dan1888. I'm not sure where you got 3 watts but these lights are rated for 60 watts which would be 9 LED watts or 800 lumens. i think with 3 daylight/bright LED bulbs on a 11' white quartz counter i should have a good amount of light, don't you?

Fixtures with black metal shades will not light anything except what they’re directly pointed at. Maybe that’s what you want, but if you want to light more of the room, use glass or fabric shades.

So, 60 watts capacity refers to incandescent bulbs. That also means an A19 bulb. The old style regular light bulb. If you use 17.5 watt Feit led bulbs you can get at Costco you'll get 1600 lumen flood out of each at the fixture. Put them on dimmers and you'll be fine.