At the suggestion of this forum, I tried out an LED lightbar in my kitchen and am very pleased. Clean look, can be suspended or mounted on the ceiling, come in white or black, typically in 4’ lengths that can be connected together. Both brightness and color temperature are adjustable with a wireless remote. Tons of light - I think each 4’ section consumes 45 w and produces 4500 lumens - and it is a broad, diffuse, shadowless light. I imagine there are pricey brands, but the ones I got cost $280 for four 4’ sections, on Amazon. I do not have any upper cabinets, so it was straightforward to hang the lightbar over the countertops, about 6” closer to the wall than the countertop edge. I am not sure how it would work if you have uppers to the ceiling. You could put one 4’ section over the sink window, another over the range wall passthrough, and two more down the center of the kitchen ceiling. Presumably the range hood has a good light. One caveat - the particular lightbar I got does not dim down to “mood lighting” levels, so if you want the kitchen to be dimly illuminated sometimes - e.g. for a candle lit dinner - you’d need some other lights for that. In general, I’d wouldn’t consider lightbars unless you want a brightly lit kitchen at times. Of course, they are cheap enough to experiment with.

Very interesting John. When I google lightbar, crazy images appear. Could you possibly share your particular choice?

https://a.co/d/iYzZq5k

Kitchen is work-in-progress, sorry

IMO track LED is a great choice since you can aim the heads where you need the light I like 4000K bulbs this is one side of my 1956 home kitchen Too little space in the attic to have much done for electrical and a weird wood ceiling so we decided to go track and I love it . All LED 400K bulbs and instead of a track kit we used parts to do exactly what we wanted we also have track all down our hallway where we have many pieces of art .

@John Liu, You've got a chef's kitchen. Looks really functional for producing happy bellies.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting, Fun kitchen pops of color. And what is that flooring? Do you have any other lighting in the kitchen for a different layer? ps. My guess is that track lighting will make a comeback (but our 27 year old electrician made quite the face when I mentioned it).

@Chispa, I really can't figure out how to lay out recessed cans that wouldn't make the ceiling look polka dotted. If you've any ideas...

@Patricia Colwell Consulting I love your kitchen. Great use of stainless steel.

OP, I think you can put recessed cans in the same places where I suggested putting the lightbars and it wouldn't look bad. More work and expense than mounting a track or bar, less flexible and changeable.

Would you consider extending the range wall cabinets across the doorway opening (shown with a swing door on the elevation) to have a wide galley kitchen?

Both track lighting or a light bar looks like they wouldn't light well in this layout. You would either have shadows from your body onto the counter or the base cabinets wouldn't be lit. It's also a small kitchen, with multiple windows (both the window and pass-through), so I wouldn't want to make it visually messy with either hardware on the ceiling or in the field of vision (pendant).

Recessed will work functionally, but aesthetically, it appears they wouldn't align with the sink, stove, middle of cabinets, or maybe in relationship to each other on opposite walls. You would have to choose function vs aesthetics.

@3onthetree, Like the way your brain is working. We considered the wide galley option, but that doorway serves a huge pupose. It's a major thoroughfare and everything we can't fit into the kitchen will be just at the bottom of the stairs in the basement.

Whatever route we take, I was thinking of running the lights 18" off the walls where there are no uppers. Does this work in your opinion?

You have leeway to place lights over an open counter, if you have enough ambient throw from other fixtures across the way to light the inside of any base cabinets. Here I would probably still place them at counter edge, as each open run is fairly short.

The flooring is laminate a muct with 3 huge dogs and not one scratch after 18 yrs It is of course no longer available like so many really good quality things I have no upper cabinets ecacept on the fridge wall so the track lights the whole space easily we have 2 track layouts on eon each side of the space as in this pic

Agree with @chispa You could also do a gooseneck sconce over the sink window, similar to this:

Luxury Kitchen Remodel · More Info

Shoreline Kitchen · More Info

@Sabrina Alfin Interiors, A simple gooseneck could be interesting.

Put this together as if I'm using recessed and 1 gooseneck over the sink. What do you think now? Again thanks for any input.