birdgardner - You're too funny! Does that mean I should hire some local teenagers to jump up and down on my stairs to test if the height is good? Lol! avesmor - Thank so much for your thoughtful reply and beautiful photo! You are a wealth of knowledge! Sorry I don't have a better picture. Yes, it will be mounted to an 8' ceiling above the 2nd story floor pictured. And yes, we have a railing now (that photo is a few months old when the floors were getting worked on). Position wise, if you are standing on the higher angled landing, the light will be directly above where the missing railing should be (not centered directly over the staircase). I'll put an "X" there. Does that help? If it's still too unclear, I can try to get a better picture with the light that's there now. Centered at eye level as you stand. Hmmm - that sounds like a good height. Yes, I am worried about the cleaning/changing bulb factor. The electrician is going to have to construct a scaffold just to install it. You can't just plop a ladder against the wall to reach it. =/ I went with enclosed glass thinking it would get less dusty than the bell jar style pendant that I originally wanted that was open at the top (DH said NO WAY to that idea). I didn't even Think to do an open design that I could have attacked with a swiffer. Sigh. Hindsight is 20/20, right? Changing bulbs will likely be a nightmare. DH wants to go with an energy efficient Long lasting bulb so he has to change it as seldomly as possible. That's terrific that your DH can reach it with a hook. My DH is not that tall (could I hire yours when it's time to change a bulb? ha ha, just kidding). But maybe we could find a tall, long limbed friend or relative to help us!

I highly recommend LED bulbs; we have about 100 3.6W MR16-style LED bulbs in our house in 3" mini-can housings, all at about 4500K (neither warm nor cool white). Each gives about as much light as a 35-40W halogen bulb. Our 19 x 21' kitchen has 15 for general lighting, plus the following task lighting: 4 over our 13' counter with main sink; 8 over our 5 x 9' main island; and 4 over our 3'3" x 9' small island. The 72" wide range hood came with ten 40W PAR20 bulbs but light a 9' wide area including range and landings; we'll be replacing the 40W bulbs with 5W dimmable LED bulbs. This is a good amount of light, not too much, not too little. Well, in the range hood area 50W of LED bulbs (equivalent to about 500W of halogen lights) is actually too much light but it's dimmable, not that my wife will use any setting but MAX. (There are also 10W LED bulbs available, but my wife has no self control when it comes to light and WILL burn out her retinas if I let her.) The standard medium base "Edison" bulb is not a form factor well suited to LEDs because while filaments (tungsten, halogen) are point sources and radiate in all directions, LEDs are VERY directional and have limited dispersion (15-60 degrees). Most LED medium base bulbs have more LEDs pointing outward with very few pointing up, some nearly exclusively point upward (downward in a pendant application). The distribution and "point" of the individual LEDs will affect whether the ambience (outward glow) or the task function (downward lumens) will work. Most pendant shades do have an inner white lining to even out the light distribution, and that will improve your downward light output for task lighting. LED color is tricky as well, as many are very cool white and won't give you that warm glow you expect from the pendant shade. A warm white (3000-3500K) bulb will give you the best ambience, whereas a pure white (4000-4500K) will give you the best task lighting. Another caution: pendants spaced too far apart look odd, but too close looks worse. I would recommend a spacing of about every 2-3'. Also, there should be ideally 3, or 4 max. Slimmer/smaller ones can be spaced a little closer and you can have more of them and still look fine. There are metallic shades (if modern works for your kitchen) that will give you a lot more task lighting. Here is a link that might be useful: [Houzz Pendant Light Ideabook[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/kitchen-islands-pendant-lights-done-right-stsetivw-vs~158689)

You can find recommendations for anything from 24'' to 40'' from the island, to 68-72'' from the floor, but it really depends on a few things. How high is the island, how wide is the pendant, how wide is the island, how tall are you, and what do you use the island for? You need to keep the pendant out of the way of your tallest cook while s/he is using the island, particularly for tasks like rolling dough which involves leaning forward. You also need to consider the shape of the pendant and the size of the area it will light, to avoid dark spots. Do you need the pendants high enough to avoid obstructing your view into an adjacent room? Better to figure out your own requirements rather than go by someone's set numbers.

We are removing soffits in our kitchen. The lighting for the counter area is currently in there. Once the soffits come out all we'd have is very high ceilings that are really part of the family room. So, we decided to build out ceiling from the kitchen so it extends to the countertop. We are hanging the pendends from that. May not be an option for you however. I'd like to hear what other have done with high ceilings.