Fern, *personally*, I HATE looking at the bottom of light bulbs, so none of my fixtures will be open at the bottom, brighter or not. I've looked at several lights with opal glass shades and they give off a nice glow, sort of amber. I would like the peninsula, breakfast area, and great room fixtures to be similiar, and probably from the same collection. Son put the question to me:would you get tired of all those amber lights? LOL Now i'm questioning myself. Whether or not the lighting will be insufficient might not be able to be determined until you're living in the house. ;o)

dallasbill The original concept for recessed lighting was to get rid of surface mounted fixtures for a minimalist look. Two types of trims were most common for round recessed fixtures. One type was just an open ring and a reflector lamp was installed with its surface flush with the ceiling and trim. This gave a wide distribution of light with lots of glare because the lamp itself was highly visible. The other type of trim, a baffle, was intended to recess the lamp up deeper into the housing and the baffle trim concealed the now exposed interior of the housing. Tucking the lamp up higher cuts off view of the lamp and greatly reduces glare when observing from across the room. These first baffles were a non glossy black to cut down on reflected light since that was the goal of the design. At some point years later someone decided they didn't like black holes in the ceiling when the lights were off and white baffles were created. To light a room with less glare, recessed fixtures are placed at specific distances apart so the cones of light from the reflector type lamps overlap a bit for general lighting. For task and accent lighting the beams of light from individual fixtures may not need to overlap. The formula on how to lay this out is based on the light distribution of the trim and lamp used. Lamps are available with various beam spreads and wattages. Light reflected off of a trim when using a recessed reflector type lamp, creating glare, is not desirable nor useful when the lighting is properly installed. Lack of glare in a well lit room gives an inviting and comfortable feeling to the space. The walls and furnishings reflecting light to your eye no longer have to compete with the much brighter source of light. If a lighting designer wants to call attention to a piece of art, for instance, they may put three times more lumens on it than other nearby objects and your eye will go to it. We don't want anyone to look at recessed ceiling fixtures but you can't ignore glare. People don't tend to understand why some places look so much more inviting than others and lighting plays a big part. People tend to choose well lit rooms with mid range furnishings over poorly lit spaces with higher end furnishings yet not be able to explain why.

"We are taking down an extra large square fluorescent light and replacing it with one two-bulb type flush mounted light and maybe another if need be then also adding a pendant over the sink." It will depend on the size and layout of the kitchen. One flush mount will not work as good as the fluorescent for two reasons. (1) The fluorescent puts out 6.5 times as much light. A 4' fluorescent with 4 tubes (2600 Lumens × 4 = 10400 Lumens) A two bulb flush mount w/60 watt bulbs or equivalent (800 Lumens × 2 = 1600 Lumens) (2) The surface mount fixture's light source comes from exactly 2 points that are very close together. The fluorescent light source has infinite sources of light within that 2' × 4' area which spreads the light out better, causing less noticeable shadows. With the fluorescent, the light reflecting off of all the other surfaces in the kitchen is also bouncing off at a more infinite number of angles, (compared to just from the pinpoint light source of the standard fixture) further contributing to the feeling of even light in the kitchen. . Pendant lighting that is bright enough to really contribute to the overall lighting of a room will also be glaring, since it is down closer to eye level. Pendants are fine for specific task lighting or mood lighting. Under cabinet lighting can also be a bit glaring if it is relied upon for more than half the light needed for a task. Keeping the under cabinet lighting out close to the face of the cabinet helps. Using two surface mounted luminaries on the ceiling will help spread out the light sources and help the light bouncing off of the cabinets light the room more evenly. Whether I would use fixtures with two or three bulbs depends on how big the kitchen is, how much light you are used to, and how intricate your tasks are. 800 Lumens × 6 bulbs is still only 4800 lumens, or less than half of what you currently have. You could try taking out two of the tubes and living with it for a while to help decide how many fixtures you want on the ceiling. . The difference between two 3-bulb fixtures and recessed cans over the outside edge of the countertop should not be enough to worry about as long as you have the under cabinet lighting and the pendants. There is a trade off between the two types of lighting. The recessed lights can be put right where you need them, but the light does not spread out as evenly. The surface mount in the middle of the room can produce more unwanted shadows, but the light spreads out and bounces off everything better to counteract the problem.

If you're in a city with a large lighting store, you can pay for an hour or two of consultant's time. I did that when planning our kitchen and it was a big help.