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Island lighting - style advice needed

11 years ago

Hi everyone, I'm getting closer to starting my kitchen remodel, tentatively on April 29! I'm now looking at lighting fixtures and have a question about lights above islands. I see a lot of people do pendant lighting which is a good option. We're also thinking of doing on pendant that then spreads out into 2 or 3 lights (island or billard light). So my question is my island is rather small, 24" x 66" so would two or three lights be more appropriate? Also, we have 8 foot ceilings so I'm trying to figure out what I can fit and still have the lights be an appropriate distance above the island. The island will be a work/baking area so I'd like to have a good amount of light there. Last question is on styling. Our house is rather traditional, a 1970's build. I'd like to stay style appropriate so modern/contemporary lights are out but maybe transitional? I looked last night and there are 3 types I'm leaning towards. Any thoughts on any of them?

First one is 42" wide, maybe too big? Also what about having a shade in the kitchen?
http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/New-Ventura-3-light-Rectangular-Chandelier/4568483/product.html

Second one is just an example of a style. I thought it would be cute to be able to replace the two lamp shades with something more colorful.
http://www.amazon.com/Progress-Lighting-P4400-84-Chandelier-Espresso/dp/B003BNE3G0

Third style...something like this...
http://www.amazon.com/Progress-Lighting-P4513-09-Chandelier-Watermark/dp/B0014HARBK

I apologize for not knowing how to post the pictures. Maybe someone can tell me how and I'll fix it.

Whatever I pick, I'll also need a coordinating pendant light for above my sink and something above our kitchen table. Although we might end up doing recessed lighting above the kitchen table, not sure yet.

Here's a picture of our current kitchen. This island light will be going where the humongous island hood is right now. And the other hanging lights are going to be changed into recessed lights.

So any thoughts or suggestions? Good places to buy light fixtures?

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Comments (4)

lascatx
11 years ago
Is the cooktop moving?
pseudochef
Original Author
11 years ago
Yes, it's moving to the back wall where the wall ovens are (but a little to the left). And the wall ovens are moving to the right side wall at the end of that cabinet run. Important details :)
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mlouis
11 years ago
It's great that you're planning ahead before you get started - we figured out lighting placement half-way through the project.

I have two suggestions (not claiming to be a lighting specialist : )

(1) Figure out the placement and number of recessed lights first. It worked for us because those will be our main light source and the light of two of them will reach the peninsula. That helped us figure out that two pendants will be enough.

(2) This might be silly but make sure that the light boxes are centered over the counter top if you're planning for seating on one side. Our Electrician originally used the cabinet depth as the center.

Good luck!
localeater
11 years ago
I did an island light, not pendants. My island is 93.5 inches long, my fixture is 51" long and has three lights. I would think your island, being smaller than mine would only need 2 lights. You do need to consider the maximum wattage per light however. Mine has a max wattage of 100 per fixture, I have it on a dimmer.

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