I guess my main take-away, which I don't seem to be communicating very well, was that there was something about the 5" (or are they 4"?) that looked significantly better (and less cheese hole like) than the 6" cans in her home on similar ceilings. They just looked a LOT less obtrusive. I think part of it was the size in our small homes with short ceilings. But, I think part of it was also that the inner area was different. The bulbs were not receded into the cans. Instead, there was some kind of casing that was even with the ceiling and the bulb area was small (maybe 2"?) and even with that line, too. The lighting was not diffuse. It was more sparkley and bright. It was just really interesting, given there were cans on in the adjoining DR that were the 6" we've been considering - and could still use in our adjoining hallway. I'm explaining this HORRIBLY. I should have taken pics. Is anything I am saying making sense? Do you have any idea what lights were in that kitchen?

Oh, sorry, Marcolo, I thought you'd seen my table before. There's no leg. Just a couple of strong folding brackets. It is supposed to be able to support more than a hundred pounds of pressure or something. I can't remember for sure, but my cabinetmaker said I could roll dough (i.e., lean hard) on it if I wanted (I'd rather not for other reasons, but I could). I don't know if this is a good application for stone, but you could easily do the counter extension from wood, metal wrapped wood, or even formica if that suits. This plan does give up a little storage by the sink, and keeping the sink centered on the window requires either the smaller DW or a blind corner, but you gain all the pantry space above and below the oven, as well as where the old oven was. By not remodelling the structure you also gain money to put into better slimmer appliances. I have a new full sized DW, but I swear it doesn't actually fit that many dishes because of the way it's laid out and how it works. An 18" Miele might hold just as much or more. I didn't want to get into details in putting this sketch in, since they can get in the way of imagination. One thing you can do to maximize storage is to have a run of short upper uppers that go round the room, with some decorative brackets or corbels to "support" the places where there aren't wall cabinets under. You could have the hood over the window go up just to the cabinet as its support as well. On the wall where the table is pictured, you could put art, beadboard, shelves/cupboard above head height, or even standard uppers if you don't want to be sitting back to the wall. The kind of table I've shown doesn't even need the castors unless you want it topped with stone to match counters. It should be light enough to just lift. Though the castors allow you to move it while lunch is already set out. Here is the picture of the table side of my island. The stone overhangs the table by 6". When the table is folded flat it's entirely underneath the overhang. I think it's about 3" thick folded. No more than 4". You can just see the bottom of the bracket on the right side, against the side of the island. These brackets do have a diagonal brace. I can find out more about the hardware and take a picture of the underside if you're interested.

I would do something like those with the cans centered over the edge of the counter so you have less shadows. I added one directly over the sink which may be too much...

A little more explanation leading up to a lighting suggestion after reviewing your provided layout: In general concept, when you place recessed-style ceiling lighting at the counter edge, you are providing task lighting on your counter workspace as well as simultaneous throw onto the floor adjacent to the cabinet. So the fixture is providing general ambient lighting for the room, but since the kitchen functions require more footcandles, these ceiling lights provide the high lumens needed for task lighting and you exploit those. Your upper and lower cabinet interiors/drawers will also be well-lit, without the shadow caused by the person standing there. With most lumenaires, because of it's ~12" placement away from the upper cabinet you will get a small hotspot or visual cone on the door, but that is a tradeoff to solving the task lighting with a catch-all solution. Because undercabinet lighting is close to the surface (both counter and backsplash) and it's cone of throw is "fenced in," a fixture style with lower lumens is chosen rendering it more of a "supplemental" lighting to the task lighting of the ceiling fixtures. But, you cannot strictly define it as only task lighting because of the low lumens, the sometimes haphazardness of upper cabinets to your work surface, and it's exploitation for accent lighting and layering in concept. You could raise the lumens to focus on task lighting and limit ceiling fixtures to ambient, however you are sometimes left with a poor solution where you can't balance the lighting between ambient, task, and accent, nor provide task lighting where you need it, illustrated in this example: Of course, these principles are general solutions to what you will be presented with in most kitchens. That is, using fixtures that are efficient in cost, installation, and aesthetics, thus a lumenaire that can cover a combination of ambient, task, and accent lighting to some degree. If your project's characteristics have attributes that need a little adjustment in the strict definition of which fixtures provide which lighting methods, then that is completely acceptable. You would see this often with high-end kitchens, specific design aesthetics, prominent circulation, some galley kitchens, or non-mainstream cabinet layouts. _____________________ Looking at your specific perspective drawing, you have an entirety of 24" deep upper cabinets and very minimal wall counter space. So if your kitchen genre calls for an efficient solution to lighting, then I would suggest 3" recessed cans which can be spaced closer to each other and have no choice but to be placed within the aisles. However, the primary purpose of these is to provide task light within the upper and lower cabinets, so they would not be centered over walkways in a grid to light up your path, but placed appropriately for a cabinet/set of cabinets. Then with the 3 enclosed wall counter spaces, where the range (which the hood will probably have it's own spots) and beverage appear to have the uppers too high to have accent lighting double as supplemental counter task lighting, utilizing under cabinet 2" ("puck style" if need be) fixtures directed at the counter. As far as the island and pendants, it may be too tight of a width of room, too much vertical orientation with the tall cabinets and mostly skinny-width doors, in what looks like a 9' ceiling, and no location where you would get a broad, setback, visual perspective to appreciate the proportion of any pendants, all of which might render the pendants "invisible" but at the same time cluttering the visual of the cabinet faces. And along with your non-symmetrical sink placement and only 3.5' counter width, it may be best to only have recessed lights. But, it just depends on the pendant fixture chosen, how transparent and how well it can provide task lighting, and your cabinet finishes/styles. Along the beverage wall I would definitely place uplighting to the ceiling and make sure the lumens balance with the counter lighting below. If your aesthetic and budget is at a higher level, say to match the rest of house or tigerwood cabinets, then another route is for 2" ceiling fixtures (which would have more design-oriented lumenaire selections) and they would light the walkways with general ambient light, but the interior of cabinets would need a light for each shelf.