Oh,it's so nice to get the lighting in isn't it. I have a similar sized island. Mine is 32x61. I have two Kichler pendants installed(about 10 inches wide). The center of the bulb is about 15 to 16 inches from the end of the island and about 30 inches between them. I don't know how the electrician figured it out, he just asked me if I thought it was ok and I said yes. I think they seemed perfectly spaced. Yours might be a little close, but I'm no expert.

Can you post a picture? Will the electrician cover some of the cost to move them since it was his fault?

It may not be as bad as you think. How is the lighting? Do you feel like the island needs more light on the ends?

He should have divided by 4 and hung them approximately 16" from each end. You can push them over 5" and see of the lighting is any better. If not, I don't know if it's worth the trouble to move them.

Ideally, to maximize the lights' effects, he should have divided the space into the same number of sections as pendants and then centered each pendant in each space. Either way can work, but assuming you'll be using that whole counter space, you'll probably prefer the lighting spaced farther apart.

(sorry to hijack!)

Holligator- Do you have a good on-line reference for figuring out light placement? I am drawing the electrical plan today so we can get started tomorrow running wires, and I need to figure out placement for things like the island pendants, downlights for task lighting over the sink run, etc. How do you figure out size and spacing? Yikes!

Staceyneil, here's a pretty good link on the topic.

http://www.forteelectric.com/Howtolayoutcans.html

There are a lot of factors to consider beyond the lights themselves in making a good lighting plan. For example, how much natural light will you have and from what direction? The colors of your cabinets and floors and, especially, the type of countertop (i.e., light/glossy to reflect light or dark/matte to absorb light?) all matter.

Placing recessed cans can be hard, because you don't want them creating a glare on your cabinets, but you need them close enough to light your countertops without creating a shadow when you stand at the counter to work. Placing pendants can be tricky because you have to think both about the light cast (as in the pics above) and about the height--don't want pendants blocking your view or shining light right in your eyes. You also have to consider where the switches for all these different lights will go.

In my kitchen, I have recessed cans, undercabinet lights, pendants over my island and sink, halogen lights in my hood, and two accent lights. I hardly ever use the undercab lighting, except for ambient lighting, because the others do the job well. The natural light from the window is enough for passing through to grab something from the fridge, but not enough to work, so the cans and/or pendants come on for that, depending where I'm working. Our cans are all about 4-5 feet apart, which seems right for our 8.5' ceilings. One accent light stays on all the time and serves both as ambient lighting during the day--it's in the nook in our otherwise dark pantry wall--and as a nightlight at night.

We switch the cans on from either of two doorways. The pendants and undercabinet lights are both controlled from switches on the side of my island. I really like this set up, because I don't have to go all the way to the doorway to adjust the smaller lights for specific tasks.

The only thing I didn't anticipate was the fact that a Great Dane tail can operate a light switch placed on the side of an island. Since we have four of those tails wagging at any given moment, I am sometimes surprised to find my lights turning on or off at odd moments. My fault for placing the dog's cookie jar too close to that light switch!

Sorry for the loooooong hijack, Carolyn! :)