Well...these all are some nice pendants. But the issue not what's a nice pendant, the issue is lighting design: what needs to be illuminated and how best? Let's revisit the subject of lighting: there's three types of lighting and each is very good for what it does: 1) ambient (overall lighting in a space); 2) task lighting (lighting of very specific and often used working areas), and 3) feature lighting ( designed more to be seen and give a welcoming warm glow than to illuminate anything specific). Well designed spaces generally need all three types of lighting--not just one! For example, in vinmarks photo above, with a great many pendants which only illuminate downwards in a rather narrow beam (look at the opaque metal tops to all the fixtures), the space has lots of "down" light, but the only ambient lighting appears to be that which bounces up off the floor and illuminates things from the bottom! Thus, there's lots of "task" lighting (if the pendants are located over work areas); a minor amount of ambient lighting; and zero feature lighting. Lighting is a highly creative endeavor and takes creativity and experience. There is no "one size fits all" solution! Good luck on your project.

oldalgebra- Your wooden box should work fine as a facade, but, to be to code, all the connections must be inside a proper electrical box, and that electrical box should have a cover on it. That means that you should leave a bit of length to the lamp cords as they need to go into the electrical ceiling box so they can be clamped, and code requires that all wire ends being connected need to protrude from the open electrical box by 6" while they are being worked on. If the ceiling box is already in place in the ceiling, I suspect that the electrician may install an extension ring to accommodate all the wires legally, and use a cover with a hole and cable clamp in it. In addition, the electrician needs room to work with the wooden box not in the way, so additional slack in the fixture cords is also necessary for that purpose. I'd install a couple of long screw eyes in the ceiling and into a joist and then hang the wooden box temporarily from these so that someone doesn't have to try to hold the box up while someone else does the electrical. If it were me, I'd have about an extra 2' of lamp cord for each of those fixtures to make it easier to do the electrical properly. By the way, how do you intend to securely fix the wooden box to the ceiling?

I will say Edison bulbs are the most horrible lighting ever and there is areason they went the way of the dodo . I like good lighting that actually lights the table and the other thing with Edison buls is they cast a yellow glow on everything so colrs you love in the daytime become yucky at night. I need to see the rest of your home this is one space and needs to work with the others I am getting no feel for your style except for atable.

It looks like the island is illuminated solely by the pendants. Ital mover's black and amber choices seem to compliment the table fixture but it's had to know how well they will light the space. Agree, they need to be narrow for the 8' island, but I would carefully consider the length so they don't overly enclose the space. A clear or frosted shade would likely give more light. My personal taste is to avoid pendants due to cleaning as well as the spacial interruption. OK for really high ceilings but it's a personal design choice.