Our kitchen has vaulted ceiling also, but not that high over the table, so we have a hanging fixture. We have a recessed light that illuminates the other side of the kitchen, where the ceiling is pretty high. It provides ambient light to that side of the room, but if our table were under it, I don't think it would throw off the right kind of light. If I were you, I would reconsider putting a hanging fixture over the table. If you're concerned that a 14-foot chain might not look right, go to a good light fixture store and browse through some catalogues. You'll get good ideas on how to deal with your issue.

Don't put CFs in recessed cans. They get too hot and the bulbs burn out quickly. I spent a fortune in bulbs before I ran into an engineer that designs lighting fixtures that clued me in that it wasn't bad or cheap bulbs that were the problem. I was not impressed with the quality of light from the retrofit LED bulbs I saw, but you local lighting store probably has a display you can look at. You might want to look at frosted halogens for the vaulted ceilings. The light is indirect, unlike regular halogens, and very, very warm (2850K). Too warm for my taste, but I prefer cooler lights in general. They provided a lot of light without the glittery halogen look and it was very comparable to a warm incandescent light. I think they would be too hot for a 7' ceiling, though. I'm wrangling with light, too, right now, so I am interested to see what other suggestions people throw out to your question. It seems like there are a whole lot of not-great choices out there right now when you take incandescent out of the picture. I am hoping the light bulb pain the EU is going through now will help get some better options on the table for the US when our turn comes up in 2012.

Have you thought about adding under cabinet lighting if you have upper cabinets on the perimeter of your kitchen? I have sufficient ceiling light, but I rarely use it because I prefer just using undercabinet task light while I'm in the kitchen. It's been two years since we researched lighting for our renovation, so I don't know all the options. I'm thinking you could add more recessed lights, but of the LED variety. If I remember correctly, they can last 50-100,000 hours.

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