I'm not a big fan of pot lights ... they can come off looking like ceiling acne.

Where I'd place lights:

- One pendant light over the sink ... on a dimmer and separate switch.

- Two pendants over the island ... two because one can create a shadow. Also on a separate switch.

- You'll have a light in the hood over the range.

- I'd add one pot light in front of the refrigerator.

- I'm iffy on under-cabinet lighting because you'll already have a light at the sink and the range, and that gives you a decent amount of light.

Thank you for your suggestions!

Would need a flat plan with dimensions but there is no such thing as an overlit kitchen, but I’ve been in plenty of dark ones. The lights go over the counter edge, 24” from the wall, roughly 36-48” apart. Every lighting circuit gets dimmers.

When we were redoing our kitchen 20 years ago, one of the things that the lighting designer talked with us about was the fact that the pot light eventually created a cone that was about 6 feet in width on the floor. So we used those numbers to space out our lights. I think our kitchen has a size similar to yours, but a different layout. We basically have two pot lights in one walkway and then two in the perpendicular walkway, and then pendants over our island. I would encourage you to make little circles, and tape them onto your ceiling, and then see if you feel like there is too much, or if the spacing is symmetrical, etc.

What herbfarm said. Lots of lights, and over the countertop edge, not the walkway. You could do a pendant over the sink instead of recessed lights. The island needs recessed lights over the sink-side countertop edge, and then pendants over the middle. Undercabinet lights are awesome! It's hard to believe how much better they make thinks until you have them. Don't skimp there.

It's not a large kitchen and you aren't showing surroundings or walls beyond

Your fridge is lit when the door opens.

You do not want pots larger than four inches and i prefer them 18- 20" to center of pot, from the perimeter wall. You don't want your "work" in shadow.

What is your venting? A microwave? It has a light. Add under cabinet ( squiggle lines , two pendants over the island or appropriate size linear fixture.

Can't advise beyond, as we are not seeing 2 dimension of all the area involve, or any walls

Kitchens are work areas too. The work zones benefit from at least 450 lumens of task lighting at the surface. Your body can create a shadow that blocks light. Pots 6" in from the counter edge avoid that shadow. Pendants are largely accent/ambient/decorative light sources. You have to figure the lumens if you want to substitute them for task lighting. Lde lights come in different colors of white from 2700k to 5000k. 3000k to 3500k are warm but not as incandescent yellow as 2700k. I prefer all 4" recessed lights and undercabinet lights. I'd also delete the micro in favor of a exhaust hood.

Lots of great advice already on lighting the space. Just a thought to consider - change the upper cabinet left of sink to single cabinet, and have open cabinet added there to house the microwave. Might have to bump fridge to left slightly to accommodate. Then you can have a great hood vent over the stove. Also, for stove perhaps consider slide in style so all controls are on the front instead of raised on the wall. Good luck to you!!

I’d create a ”ceiling plan”. If you add pendants over island and sink, now consider task areas independently (note Hallett & Co‘s info). We have a very small kitchen (no island) and have 5 switches on dimmers, which works really well. You not only want good task lighting when needed, but also softer/flexible combinations. I’d be more concerned about using too little lighting.

What is going to be over the range? In the drawing it looks like cabinets.

@jackowkib, we ended up going with a low-profile otr microwave, mainly to save money and space. Also went with a slide-in gas range with the knobs on the front. The diagram just shows a standard range.

Thank you, everyone for the lighting advice! We appreciate the comment that you can never have an overlit kitchen. Makes our lighting decisions more justified for sure. ;) We will have pot lights, under-cabinet lighting, and a large pendant over the island (mainly for accent/ambiance). We appreciate the placement suggestions for the recessed lighting, closer to the counters, not in the walkways. Great advice!

Use the new wafer lights that are below the ceiling plane and do not require massive holes in your attic insulation. Then, use those with high lumens, fewer of them, and the appropriate dimmers for them. You want to be sure that the cones of light overlap, for a well lit kitchen. That goes to the ceiling height, angle of the beam, and the amount of lumens created, and the amount of footcandles needed.

What @Maureen said. Having insufficient lighting is more of a concern.

As you can see from the pics in my post above, our kitchen has three layers of light…recessed, semi-flush, and undercabinet. The kitchen table is illuminated separately.

Each category of lighting has its own switch, and all can be dimmed. One bank of four switches is at the entrance to the kitchen, just out of sight in my first pic, next to the white double doors, which lead to the dining room. The entrance from the den, has a set of three switches…one of which is for the table, and can be seen just above the toaster oven.

As Maureen mentioned, it’s best to create a ceiling plan, marked within the kitchen plan.

I have a smallish kitchen (14x14 feet) and have five pot lights. I also have two pendants over my sink (although it faces two windows the overhead light is necessary at night), and I would absolutely recommend you do under cabinet lighting as well. Last year we added a new vent hood with light and also recommend that - good luck!

You can never over-light a kitchen, IMO. Just make sure they're all on dimmers.