This is just my personal opinion, but I hope it helps. For me, I don't like bright light, so I have all my lights on dimmers, even the canned lights in the kitchen. I also don't like direct light shining down on the island. It reminds me of a spotlight and removes the ambiance from the room. I'm in the process of remolding a new home and just as in my current home, I have canned lights throughout the kitchen, which will be the main source of light, all on dimmers, and I have two 18 inch pendant lights, Restoration Hardware Machinist Pendants, (see pic below) over the island. For me, the pendant lights will be more for decorative purposes, ambiance. The bulbs are low wattage and will remain on even when not using the kitchen and the canned lights are off. This will give enough light to be able to see when making a quick trip to the kitchen w/o having to turn on the canned. This has worked well in my current home where I have a huge island and a chandelier hanging directly in the center, with several 15 watt bulbs. My point is, if you don't use a glaring wattage bulb and don't hang the pendant at or just above eye level, I don't think it matters whether you have a clear, frosted or solid globe/shade. If you look at photos online, the majority of lights over islands have clear or no glass, which to me, it's not meant to be the main source of light. Now, if you don't have additional lighting in the kitchen and the island lights are the main source, then maybe it would be a good idea to use a solid shade/dome and a higher watt bulb, but in warm tone and not in white. I hope this helped. Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your comments. wizardmn, I will look for those LED lights. Do you know who makes them? brickton, I'm assuming that the pendants you talk about come with the diffusers; they're not something you can have added? I will look for those as well. I do like the dome look. gregincal, we have track lighting in our living room, and I'm not crazy about seeing the lights (they're ugly too, but that's another matter). Or like you said, NYSteve, getting a long pendant so the bulb is hidden. We have a traditional house so I think the pendant you showed looks too modern, but maybe I could find something in a more traditional look. brianadarnell, I'm glad it worked for you (post-surgery too!) but think it might bother me. I appreciate the help!

Waiting = good (IMHO too). Swiss cheese lights = fine especially if, as you once said Breezy, you want to "light up your kitchen like an operating theater". I loved that sentiment. I think multi-cans can do that for you, painlessly. Then leave the pendants and even flush mounts for looks; the cans for function. =0.02 Rhome: I hear you about not having necessarily invested your heart in lighting that might justify the $$$. But I have a slightly different take. I think we all sort of budget out, unconsciously, a certain amount for aesthetics, things that make you happy just-because. They just look really pretty or cool or something positive to you -- they give you a lift. I don't think it necessarily matters in which of many possible arenas that sort of whimsical extra comes from -- could be from lighting, or, say, rugs or, say, -- dunno, towel pigs, or, say, windows to the sides of ranges... these little extra touches can put your personal mark on things and make you smile. They can become invaluable for that reason alone. And the forum for that might not matter precisely, only that there exists some certain small percentage of that going on in your life/space/kitchen. So ... I think lighting *can* be that; or not. I think it's perfectly understandable that it never came to that for you, but I'm guessing it has in some other way, say, in those big wonderful fridges, or the island sink ... what about the fantasmagorical corner beverage shelves? That gives you your lift, and lighting could be someone's source of lift. Or not. But it's one possible, reasonable, exterior source of positivity, above and beyond what might justify the $$$. I happened to find a lighting shop years ago run by an old guy whose taste I adored. I loved everything he displayed, and he gave me good prices in return: I bought an awful lot of awfully nice lamps from him. And they *still* make me happy, even one of them now cracked, years later, surviving a brutal renovation, etc. But he's retired, possibly from this earth, even, by now. And I can't replace his taste, his prices, his special spirit. So now the lamps are cheap and good-enough, but they were once quite expensive. And they still make me happy to see them, think about them, place the stories with them. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it doesn't matter where you invest more money than is strictly necessary, just that you do somewhere, sometime. Lighting is a possible way to do this, or not if there's another outlet. That said, too thickly, I'm glad you're waiting, Breezy, because none of the above feels to me quite in keeping with the furniture and floors and kids and space we've seen glimpses of so far.

Im not sure why someone would say that who did? And a floor plan is relevant, now I know the size of the island and the height of the ceiling! With 8 ft ceiling, tho the island is long you cannot go too over sized. Here is one thing I tend to repeat. take some string, and balloon or dixie cup or even cut out the size of the pendant you like and attach it to the string and blue tape it to the ceiling, sometimes it can really show you a lot about scale. Also if you are looking for functional light get something that forces the light down rather than out, dont go enclosed. if they are purely pretty get what you love, but just make sure the scale is right.