springvillegardens - are you looking at UC lights for ambient lighting or for task lighting? Many contractors seem to think that people want it just for aesthetics, not for function...and thus the suggestion of using rope lights. Rope lights, IMO, are NOT going to give you enough working light - I would strongly suggest going with LED strips. We went with lighting from EnviromentalLights.com - they were extremely helpful...I sent them a drawing of the kitchen and they laid out exactly what I needed and put it in a cart for me. We talked a bit more about some of the things I was looking for and so on and they helped revise my cart then as well. All in all, a very smooth process. Yes, it was more money than rope lighting, but I have wonderfully bright lighting to work with and I opted to have a dimmer also for them and it dims beautifully in the evenings as an ambient light source.

DH is not in town right now but I'll have him install the new perimeter pendants in Sept. and then I can make a photo. This photo doesn't tell the whole story but you can see the ceiling fixtures and the fluorescents. Excuse the mess--I'm trying to move stuff around in the new space. Be patient here. Will try to explain. Our new kitchen is a 12 x 17 bumpout running the long way along the front of our house along our old 8 x 10 kitchen plus basement access, which have now morphed into a corridor and an eating nook and a closet; wrapped along the perpendicular end of the old kitchen/corridor and new kitchen is a new lobby. The Lobby and the old kitchen are really passageways--besides accessing the G-shaped kitchen through the gap in the G, the corridor-lobby has access doors to garage, front step, basement, dining room, kitchen closet, and coat closet. Not easy to understand this, but if you dig through my Flickr stuff you'll see the plan. Essentially, the halls make a T and the new kitchen cuddles into one side of the T and the dining room into the other side. So... We've put four matching 2-bulb Besa ceiling hugging fixtures along the T and two 3-bulb ones into the center of the kitchen. That means that we bought a total of 6 fixtures that all match, in order to try to homogenize the disparate parts. We'll also have matching white Quoizel pendants along the two parallel walls in the kitchen that run same direction as the stem of the T. (see a new post I made today). Are you using CFL's that were specifically designed for dimming? They ARE in the stores but I haven't tried them yet. Interesting that your kitchen code requires CFLs! I thought our community was restrictive but don't recall this requirement. The community does allow recessed cans in attics, but we chose not to do this because of energy and ice dam concerns. We are not allowed to put anything but fluorescents into closets. I have a young friend who has a 1950s kitchen that was always progressive and functional. She retained the ceiling fixture position when updating the space. She put in a large ceiling-mounted 1-foot hanging xenon? hallogen? something else? very bright mod light on her white ceiling which she feels is very sufficient for most kitchen activities. There is a light over the sink and another over the table and there is one in the range hood, but otherwise, I think that's it. She's 15 years behind me in the aging issues. Kitchen has a wall of windows. Please let us know how things progress in your project. Inquiring minds want to know. Here is a link that might be useful: note two ceiling lights and undercab fluorescents in partly finished kitchen

Hi Neil, For bar stools, it may be possible to fit 3 comfortably spaced between each other. You can try to fit 4, if the stools are narrow enough but it won't likely be very comfortable. However, other things to consider may be what type of environment you want to create in that space. If close and intimate, 4 would be the route to go. If more casual and comfortable, then 3 would probably be the better option. If you haven't yet decided on what bar stools to go with yet, we recommend the following: Tasha Boa Ava The Tasha and the Boa can act as bar stools as they are round, hollow, and sturdy, or as accent tables. As for pendant lights, it's a matter of preference. Pairs or trio's would work. If you go with a pair of pendants, then make sure that the diameter of the pendant is large enough to span the kitchen island. If you go with a trio of pendants, you'll have to use smaller diameter-sized pendants to give them a spacing between each other. We have these smaller diameter-sized pendants that could work for your kitchen island: Hermione Pendant Collection Hooray Harriett Pendant Collection Hooray Henry Pendant Collection We hope this information will help you make a more informed decision on your home needs. Very Best, Tai Truong Elements of Design 3400 Medford Street Los Angeles, CA 90063 tai@lusivedecor.com www.elementsofdesign.com

What you have would not be enough for me. I prefer to have extra lighting on different switches (with dimmers) and have the option to adjust as needed for different tasks and moods. Some people have never lived in houses with good lighting and don't know what they are missing!