I think I would add some recessed lighting. It's nice to have. I mostly use my island light and the under cabinet fluorescent lights but if I really need some light on the subject it's great having recessed cans. I have them in the kitchen and also down a long hallway on both levels. Don't use them often but comes in very handy when I need it. It's nice to have a variety of lighting sources for different tasks. Mine are not really centered on anything. There are three on one side and four on the other due to the shape of the room. I don't even notice they are up there because they match the ceiling. Do it I'd say...

It strikes me that 65W is fairly low wattage for a recessed can light? Aren't they usually 100W or 150W? (Not that I know a thing about it, but mine are 5" cans with 100W and are very bright for my kitchen workspace.)

Wow, you don't have any lighting over the island/cooktop? Or in the dining area? Definitely add more! But put them on separate switches, so you can turn on just the ones you want at any given time.

I think it's almost impossible to put too much lighting in a kitchen.

I did forget to mention that we have a light/ceiling fan combo over the eating area. It was already there pre-renovation so I forgot to include it.

I panicked at the last minute about my lighting too, and had them add a few. I'm SO glad I did...it's still not as well lit as I would like with overheads. Once the undercounters and range hood light are on, I'm OK.

So...the pendants are over the island? That will help, but as you say, they're probably mostly downward task lighting, not ambient light. I think you need more recessed cans...along the aisle way between the island and the wall and probably over the island too (or maybe over the edges of it, if the pendants will provide sufficient task light to work at it. If the ceiling fan/ overhead fixture is/has been enough over the dining area, then you're probably OK there. BUt if you felt it was dim before I'd put another can or two just on the edge between dining area and kitchen area.

In my experience, 6" cans need to be spaced no more than 5 feet apart to provide enough ambient light. Though I should say my kitchen has very little light from windows.

We have a similar layout (minus the 2 over the sink, we have 1) and have 65w/120v bulbs in each. I'm surprised that it's not enough light, but we do have a crazy bright island light (4 G15s, I think?). I think if it bothers you and isn't going to break the bank, I'd add some more recessed lights! Like Chibimimi said, you really can't have too much in a kitchen!

Your layout has some similarity to ours and we have plenty of light. Our cans have 65W floods in them so I think you have the correct bulbs. As to locations, our sink cabinet run forms an L where yours has an opening to get at the fridge. Because of your fridge, your light #4 is moved closer to the fridge where our equivalent #4 is in line with #5 and #6. We only have one can over our 3' sink where you have 2. We don't have a #3 light and our #2 light is over the left portion of the island (centered over the prep portion of the island as the right side has our range top with overhead vent & lighting). Because of the vent hood, we do not have pendants over the island. We do not have a hallway where your #1 light is located as that is just a doorway into the dining room, so we don't have a light in that location. Now we do have 3 cans located in the walkway on the other side of the island (where you have none). These 3 cans are parallel to lights #4, #5 and #6. This is where I think you have a dead spot that makes you feel as if you do not have enough light. We also have two cans on a separate switch above the dinner table (we only have these lights on when we are sitting at the table). You have more windows in your eating area with the bow and almost 6' on sink wall where we only have a 6' slider on sink wall and a walkway into the FR where your bow window is located. In summary, we have 7 cans around/over our island area (and 1 over the sink) where you have 6 (but more to forming an "L" as opposed to surrounding the island) and 2 over the sink. Since you feel you do not have enough light, I would have 2 more cans put in the walkway on the other side of the island that would be parallel to #5 and #6. HTH

I am in the minority camp when it comes to this issue. I think a big mistake we tend to make is to use recessed cans for ambient lighting. They're not--cans are task lighting. Even when using floods rather than spotlight bulbs, their primary role is to cast concentrated light over a specific and rather narrow area. Using a typical bulb, the beam angle might be at most 60 degrees. To get the "cones" of light to overlap requires a lot of cans.

Furthermore, the light produced by cans can be less than optimal: overly "hot" under the fixtures, dimmer in other areas. Much of the ambient light you need depends on reflection of the main beam off the floor, counters, appliances, etc and thus is less predictable than a lighting layout might suggest.

If you are relying strictly on cans for all ambient light, then more--lots more--cans than you might initially think are needed are the best plan. You can--should--have them all on dimmers anyway to avoid overlighting. But a nice solution is to include some kind of hanging fixture, or wall sconces, to add more diffuse ambient lighting, and reserving the cans for what they are best at, which is task lighting. In your case, choosing pendants over the island that are not strictly downlights would give you some of that effect, as long as they are not mounted so low that the lateral/upward light shines straight into your eyes.

We also have a similar kitchen layout & lighting layout to yours. The big difference I see is that we have 3 recessed lights along the back side of the island. We have 2 chandeliers with 3-40W bulbs in each over our island--so a little more ambient light there vs. task lighting. With that in mind, it may pay to put in a few 4" recessed lights over the island. Do you have an island exhaust hood going in over the cooktop or will you have a downdraft? If not hood, I would definitely put those 4" recessed lights in that area.

Hope this helps!

I would never use cans for ambient lighting just for task. For ambient that's where the pendants come in and the undercounter lights.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Part of the problem is that we need a few more recessed lights on the other side of the island. The other bigger problem is that the pendants I picked do not give off enough light.
I am returning the beautiful pendants I picked out (with their 50 halogen bulbs) and buying three pendants that take 75 watt incandescent bulbs and have a larger opening.
I won't stop till I need sunglasses in my kitchen.