the minimum for sure corners and center...

I always like can lights over each window and door

plus anything I want to highlight (furniture that will have a permanent position)

I like sconce lights in a dining room,

any photos of the space? is it dark room? How tall is the ceiling?

Ceiling is 8’ tall. I didn’t post photos because it would generate a lot of negative comments for sure. We will be changing the wall treatments in the the coming two years but will be finishing total renovation of Kitchen and master bathroom and have my daughter’s wedding this October. There is a white chair rail at 36” below which is black Venetian plaster and on top is paint…a bit more gold than SW Macadamia with wide vertical ‘stripes’ created with clear coat on every other stripe. I couldn’t find a good pic of the room and currently it is the temporary storage for the contents of the kitchen cabinets …. This is few from approximately the pocket door looking at the angled opening…. The room has western exposure and the window goes almost to the floor….

Lyn, something like this?

The "contractor 4-corner or 5-die special" is not a good design choice here. You would be lighting dust bunnies in the bare corners and open floor space, but not really the furniture or architectural features of the room.

Not sure how a chandelier does not work with a multiple-leaf table. If you always have a table, and if your decor has the design vocabulary to support a chandelier (which the house style appears to support it - regardless of colors or chair rail), then a chandelier serves as reinforcing the focal point of the table and performs it's lighting function well. Yes, a larger chandelier that should be proportionate to the space will overpower the smallest size of table (drawn at 24" long?), but that table size is disproportionate to the space anyway. The 6 or 8 seater size seems a better fit. Realize a chandelier is just a prominent hanging fixture - it can be any style - doesn't have to have dangling jewels and candelabra 'bulbs'.

For recessed, I would use them as accent lights here, accenting the window bay. I would probably not accent any of the other walls/furniture with recessed (unless your already used 2" fixture works with the long wall), because they would compete/detract with the accented window bay and make the large angled entry and short wall by the pocket door more prominent. Instead I would probably utilize table lamps or sconces on the long wall (depending on the buffet - a longer one could support recessed accents or either sconces or lamps, a short buffet may be better with flanking sconces), and for the china cabinet some interior lighting.

Good to know we have checked some of those boxes already. The china cabinet does have an interior light (but does not provide much lighting to the room.) We also have a table lamp on the side of the short buffet and a floor lamp in the window recess that we use a lot. When I do the lumen calculations….SF of room multiplied by 30-40 lumens per SF for dining rooms, and ignore the floor lamp which may not always be there….suggests more than two. And room is unusually messy due to renovations in other rooms.

I do like flanking sconces but we aren’t renovating this room just yet…taking advantage of current contractor to smooth the ceiling and put the two ceiling cans in a better place. But that became ‘we can add more cans”….