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Distance from wall of over sink pendant lights?

13 years ago

I had the electrician install our pendants 12" out from the wall, thinking this would roughly center them over the 25.5" counters, set just a bit back to be out of the way of any tall people. However, now that I look at the roughed-in wires---this looks *really* close to the wall. Did I screw this up, and should I try to move them another inch or two out from the wall, or is this distance going to work once everything is put together?

The pendants are supposed to be task lighting over the sink counter, so there's one in front of each window and the sink is centered under the two windows. We're hanging them at about 44" off the counter, so they're pretty high. We don't have the fixtures yet so I could only guess at where they would hang using another pendant, which is 6" longer than the sink pendants will be and doesn't have its shade yet anyway---so this is super rough approximating. Unfortunately, I have to decide before we have either the lights or the counter, though, since the plaster people start later this week and are patching and leveling the ceiling, so DH will kill me if we make any more holes in it after that.

Anyone have pendants like this and know how far they are from your wall/windows? Does it work? Am I just panicking needlessly? :)

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Comments (5)

bmorepanic
13 years ago
You can cut-out a pendant from paper or cardboard or paper plate and suspend it from a string. Others have also used balloons roughly pendant sized.

Anyplace from 12" to 18" from the wall is fine for viewing, but I'd prefer the light a little bit further from the wall if it doesn't have a diffuser - so more light was cast on the front side of the object and less on the back side.

The other reason is when the diameter of the pendant is greater than about 8" because it reduces the distance to the wall so small, it looks a little funny to me.
artemis78
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks---I think we are using 6" wide open shades with these, though they also make an 8" wide shade that's similar so that's an option too. I looked at it again this morning and think I would need to have the electrician move it---they're not planning to come back till we're ready them to put the outlets and switches on for final inspection, so I'm thinking I should just let this one go, and if it really becomes an issue once we're using the kitchen, worry about it then....moral of the story: post these questions before the work rather than after!! (You'd think with the number of questions I've already posed here that there wouldn't be much left to ask... ;)
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i-chic, however did you find that bat fixture!?! DH looked at it for a moment and then said, "Hey, why not?" until he saw the price. The size fixtures we're looking at right now are more like those shown above by birkie_2006, and we'd hang them lower exactly like that (thanks, birkie!). I checked out kitchenkelly's fixtures, and I love how those three tiny pendants look above her sink in that pretty, airy kitchen, but I think they might get lost in our situation, which probably will turn out to be very woody and bricky--altogether a "heavier" looking kitchen with darker colors. Frankly, I'd like to wait until the cabinets go up before making the final decision. It just seems like all the decisions are interrelated. If I don't pick the fixtures now (standard incandescent? electronic low voltage?), then I also can't pick the appropriate dimmer switches that are going to control them (dimmer switches mandated by California Title 24). Well, I guess the builder can install any old switch temporarily and use our old fixtures for light until we figure out which way is up. Why is our last decision--lighting--the hardest?
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For the uplight, you could go a few routes, especially with respect to dimming functionality. And some fixtures don't support dimming, so you need to figure that out. To that end, I suggest you think through the use cases. For example, the use case that I think I'd appreciate most is late evening, after you've retired to another room of the house, at which time a mellow indirect glow from the skylight cutout would be particularly pleasant. You might also want the more light from this source on occasion, in which case you'd want brighter lights on a dimmer. That being said, here's some options. I'm thinking two, centered on the skylights, mounted near the bottom rim of the cutout (just above the beam probably). Regarding the pendant, I know that selecting pendants is hard enough without more to think about, but one downside of a single pendant vs multiple pendants is thhat single sources create worse shadows. And the clear glass pendants above exacerbate this harsh shadow problem by being point sources, whereas the Fillsta, for example, mitigates this problem because it's effectively a uniform 31" sphere of light. This large diffuser also makes it possible to use a brighter source. For example, you could put a 300W equivalent CFL in the Fillsta, but such a bright light would be unacceptably harsh in a point source like the clear glass pendants above.
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I placed mine at 12", which is right inline with the 12" uppers. It's a small 6" light with a 3'0" window. Not that it matters, but I ended up cabinets 7" from window edge, leaving me room to have 3-1/2" casing around window. Still left a few inches on each side of casing so cabinets are not right against trim.
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AprilShowers
7 years ago
Artemis78, what did you finally end up doing? Are you happy with it? My husband thinks we should place a pendant closer to the wall (10 - 12 inches max) to avoid having it cast a shadow from the head of anyone leaning over the sink to wash dishes. I'm leaning more for 14 inches.... Our shade flairs to 8 inches at the bottom.
artemis78
Original Author
7 years ago
Hi! Sorry that I rarely check GW anymore, so just noticed this. We ended up sticking with the original placement, about 12" from the wall. It's been fine, although honestly I find that we don't use this lighting very often--90% of the time we just have the overhead general lighting on. But to the extent that we do use them, the placement is fine. HTH!
lisatx61
6 years ago
Artemis78, I’m picking my placement today. I was leaning towards 12 inches out but that's from the studs. Once the Sheetrock and crown molding are in, the fixture would be 9 inches from the crown molding and about 11 inches from the sheetrock. Does that sound like Yours?

And, how high is the bottom of your light from the counter? My dad is 6 foot and often helps with pots and pans. I want him happily standing there!!

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