Need your help with lighting my kitchen island

last year

Please give me your thoughts. Attached are a few photos/renderings of our kitchen island, and I want your opinion. Our island will be 13.5 feet long and 4.75 feet wide. Do you think we should have two or three pendants above the island? Intuitively, I think three to avoid any dark areas at the island. The height of the kitchen ceiling is 8’, and the pendants will be hung on that 8’ ceiling vs. being hung on the sloping ceiling of the great room.

If you have a similar sized island, I’d love to see pics of your lighting! Please and thank you!

three large pendants

two large pendants

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PRO

BeverlyFLADeziner

last year

For 13.5 ft long island I would use 3 fixtures, but not the ones you have selected. They are short and squat and they look terrible in your room.

I think trying to hang them from the 8ft ceiling is a real problem.

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Comments (10)

k t
Original Author
last year
BeverlyFLADeziner - thank you for your input and for the pics! I totally agree that the lighting fixtures in the renderings are terrible; they were inserted by the kitchen designer. The 8 foot ceiling is a problem in our kitchen renovation, but we have no way to raise the ceiling due to structural issues. My thought is to use clear, glass pendants to try to minimize the visual load caused by pendants hanging from our 8 foot ceiling. I need and want pendants for function in my hard-working kitchen. Thanks again.
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thinkdesignlive
last year
Clear glass pendants = glaring light bulbs at eye level. I’d suggest something frosted, or shaded like Beverly’s last 3.
k t
Original Author
last year
thinkdesignlive - thank you. I hadn’t thought of that. These are the lights I’m considering, and they are available in a frosted glass.
PRO
CAGE Design Build
last year
3 large pendants will provide the best lighting for your island size.
WestCoast Hopeful
last year
I agree with everything Beverly said. Three for sure but different ones.
la_la Girl
last year
Agree with the 3 - I prefer round like @BeverlyFLADeziner suggested since they will be seen from all angles. You can mock them up with strings and balloons if scale is hard to picture (I've done this and it helps) - the simpler, the better imo
thinkdesignlive
last year
I can’t put my finger on it but the 3 squarish boxes with an 8’ ceiling height seem very claustrophobic. I’d look at round or conical.
PRO
BeverlyFLADeziner
last year
last modified: last year
not sure you're headed in the right direction for the lighting.
k t
Original Author
last year
thinkdesignlive - thank you. I hadn’t thought of that. These are the lights I’m considering, and they are available in a frosted glass.

BeverlyFLADeziner - thank you again for your feedback and the pics! I hadn’t considered linear lighting, and the ones you posted are beautiful and help to solve my 8 foot ceiling problem. 🫶