Thought I would update the thread I started when I was trying to figure out what type of light to get for above the island with an 8 foot ceiling. Well here are some pics. We chose a pendant light we found (Juno onyx) at Design Expo. With our GC's help we got a flat ceiling mount/transformer (the one at the store was more conical) We wanted something with a low profile, because of the 8 ft ceiling. We love it. Thanks to all of you for your invaluable help. Here are some close up pics of the lights.

I'm not going to get into the conversation over height of pendant lights, but I will add that you should definitely mix metals. It's what gives kitchens visual interest, makes them look custom/new/modern, and keeps them from looking like builder grade. And that would be especially important to you because your kitchen is so white and could lean to the boring side if you're not careful. So in other words ... do not match your pendant lights to your faucet finish.

I’m not a professional... I also have 8ft ceilings and had a big ceiling fan right in the middle of my living room. We got rid of the fan and added a small grid of recessed lights(mostly so we could see our tv over the fireplace)They look great and gives us nice lighting when we need more light at night. We only use them when we have guests over or are looking for something we’ve lost in that room. Usually the room is lit by lamp light. Anyway... you know 8ft ceilings are low. The only lights that would work well are recessed lights and flush mounts... maybe semi-flush mounts. Depending on the size of your living room, a flush mount or semi-flush mount may look too small and silly. A fan has long, flat blades giving it the illusion of a bigger light. If the flush mounts look too small, I’d just look for a farm house style fan that looks nice. If you really just hate the fan, put in another recessed light.

IMO island lighting should light the island not the ceiling and as for size of course that depends on many things including the fixture . In my head I see no reason to not go a bit larger but your island in very narrow so think about that since 17" visually takes up a lot of space above a narrow island. But IMO the wrong fixture .