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Island pendants - how many, how far apart? Kitchen questions!!

17 years ago

The builder is bugging us for our lighting placement in the kitchen.

We are confused about how the lighting should be over the island, and in the kitchen in general.

We have 9 foot ceilings and really like the look of mini-pendants over the island (the ones we like are about 4")

The island is 5 feet x 3 feet. We thought of using 2 mini-pendants over the island approximately 2.5 feet apart. Is the spacing correct?

Is 2 too few, should I be using 3 instead?

With respect to the halogen pot lights, how should they be placed in the rest of the cooking area? Do people usually place them in the ceiling space between the counter and island, or closer to the edge of the counter? (the island is only a surface to be used for food prep, there is no sink or cooktop on the island).

THANKS FOR ANY HELP!

Featured Answer

Boywonder

11 years ago

What should the spacing be for 6" pendant light fixtures over a 9' kitchen island?

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Comments (6)

Jon1270
17 years ago
The spacing of the pendants sounds pretty good. I'm skeptical that the little 4" models will look proportionate to the island, or cast enough light to work by, but that's probably not critical at this stage; it sounds like your builder just wants to install the rough wiring and ceiling boxes.

As for can placement, many builders prefer to put cans out over the aisle spaces. While this does make exact fixture placement more forgiving, it also makes it inevitable that your own body will cast a shadow over the area of counter where you're working. I'm of the 'directly over the counter edge' school of thought. This prevents such shadows, but also places noticable splashes of light across the upper cabinets, which makes it necessary to place these cans especially carefully. With 9' ceilings I'd probably use 5" or 6" cans, shoot for about 4' spacing over the counter edges, and plan to use 75 watt, 40-degree floods.
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ggcombo
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the response...actually, the builder wants exact placement and numbers.

I kind of have my heart already set on the mini-pendants I saw...the are upside down triangluar cones...and so pretty :) the height is about 8 inches and the opening at the bottom is about 4 inches

So if I were to use these mini pendants, would you suggest that I use 3?

Thanks.
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vickyg52
13 years ago
I have an island 8ft long and 36 in. deep. how many pendant lights can I place over it?
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brickeyee
11 years ago
What beam spread for the bulbs and how far form the counter are they?

Covering the area twice (100% overlap) reduces sharp shadows.
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dancingsams
11 years ago
If it were me, I would use at least 3, maybe 4 mini pendants. Our island is 4 1/2' by 8'. We hung 4 pendants, evenly spaced and set in from the edges by about 1', in a square. Hanging three, I would suggest a triangle. Our ceiling is 10'.

Good luck!
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