Ohhh Briana - we are almost kitchen layout twins. Except our kitchen is flipped. Our range/fridge run is on the opposite wall. Is your kitchen completed? Do you have pictures? We even have the same 15" overhang on our island.

Slush- my kitchen isn't completed yet, but it better be by this time next month. I know that my story is no where near as trying as the experiences of others on this forum, but....we sold our house in january and we have been living with my parents while construction was completed which was supposed to be mar, then april, now may, and it BETTER be june :)

I promise to post pics as soon as I can. What stage are you at???

brianadarnell how far out from the upper cabinets are your recessed cans? Just curious our electrician is doing ours this week & I am really on the fence.

Well....My cabinets are 12 or 15" deep, I forget which anymore...and my lights are about 4 ft out from the wall...So, that means that there is approximately 2.5 ft to 3 ft of ceiling before the cans. Does that make sense?

Briana-we just did demo 2 weeks ago and I'm already hating the last two weeks with no sink/kitchen...we completely gutted our kitchen including moving a wall and recessing a huge beam into our ceiling. But hopefully we will be done by June sometime. We don't have a GC, DH is doing that and hired out major things like drywall/plumbing/electric, etc. I've been debating posting the pictures of the progress so far. I am so anxious about everything, and timing because we don't have a GC though. We still have to do a lighting plan, electric plan, pick granite (or some kind of counter), paint, faucet and more. This forum has been so helpful for us. I can't even imagine how others have gone for many months or sometimes over a year. DH and I did a remodel of the front of the house while I was 9 months preggo and dragged on going into having a newborn as well as DH working graveyard and we basically were living in our living room with the cradle, changing table, couch, our bed, and tv...DH said if we can get through that - we can get through anything. I sure didn't realize how much more stressful a kitchen remodel was though. But I shouldn't complain, because I think it shouldn't take longer than a couple months. Our goal is to host 4th of July at our house with our new kitchen.

I can't wait to see your finished kitchen. Fingers crossed for June for you too!

Yes, 2.5 ft to 3ft makes perfect sense. Everything I seem to read contradicts each other. We are also doing UCL so maybe 3ft is the answer for me also. I need to just make a decision and stick to it! Thanks

Thanks Brianadarnell!

It does help, but also gets me more confused. I think that because I don't have a lot of uppers under which to put UC lights, my lighting pro put my can lights just over the counter edge OVER the counter. Yours are much farther from the wall than mine are drawn. I thought that placing them that far out created a shadow from your body when you worked over the counter. But what do I know. And like you said, yours are in now anyway!

This plan was done with 6" cans (shown as green squares.) What size are your cans?

Here's the second plan I got from a different lighting store.

I meant to ask you how you are switching your lights. I assume the pendants are on a different switch from the cans, right? Is the sink fixture on its own switch?

Thanks again for going to all this effort! You're not only helping me, but many others too!

Breezy- OK. I am by no means a lighting expert...But here is my 2 cents anyways-

Your lack of uppers definitely makes it more important to get the lighting right because you cant fix dark spots with UCL- that is the one con of no uppers. :(

I think a combination of the first and second lighting layout would work best. For example- I think the location on the edge of the counter in the second one is better because it won't reflect right off your surface or be too bright and spatially, I think it works better. Unless your ceilings are really low, there shouldn't be too much shadowing as long as there is room for light to spread. We have 9 ft ceilings in our new house. In our old house we had track lighting for the prep area that was directionally pointed at my back. I never noticed a shadowing problem. I think the first plan did a better job of centering the cans over your island. I don't think you want them to be off center on width. And, I think you definitely want some recessed lights in the family room (like plan #1).

Answers to your questions-
My cans are all 6". They are all switched individually and I want them all to be placed on dimmers. I am slightly worried about the pendants because shanghaimom's post about glare- but my eyes aren't sensitive and I would prefer to light that kitchen up like an operating room ( :) ) than not have enough task lighting so we will see how the pendants do. I searched forever to find ones that met my specs!

The switches in my layout are as follows:
1. sink recessed (i think i may leave this one on overnight)
2. pendants
3. cans over kitchen
4. cans over dining room

I think thats it. Hopefully I have helped.

You have helped, and I appreciate it. I never thought there was a down side of an upperless kitchen. Oh well, this is minor compared to everything else.

I agree that the cans should probably be centered over the island. I'm not sure why the nice young lady at the second store put them on the edge like that. She insisted that I wanted to light the aisleway between the island and the couch. I didn't get that one. She also said I didn't need lights overhead in the family room. Um, I don't think she got my memo about WANTING LIGHT! I'd be happy to put them on dimmers though.

Thanks for the advice, the teasing, and the answers! And please do tell me about your bathroom lighting plan too over on the other forum.

Hey breezy - thought I would add this info here

For my under-counter and in-cab lighting, I'm using Liteco Lighting LED light bars.
The light is very even and bright. I'm excited to see them in!

Hth
Celine