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Lighting Design Dilemma Kitchens

Pendant Lights Over Large Kitchen Island

5 years ago

We are building a house and have two kitchen islands. One of them is 115 inches long and separates our family room from the kitchen. We refer to it as our entertainment island as it does not have a sink or cooktop. It will have seating on the raised side (kind of like a bar top) and the other side will be for food prep. The electrician put three outlets for lights over the raised part of the island -- a recessed light in the middle and two spaces for pendant lighting to the right and left. I am concerned that two pendants will look unbalanced over the 115 inches, even if I put up large lights. There is still time to change the center light to a pendant if three would be better. I have spent countless hours looking at lights and have no clue what to do about sizing or even number of pendants. We are about 30 days out from finishing our home. All selections have been made except for the lights. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (2)

lucky998877
5 years ago
Sounds like a large kitchen with a large island, 3 pendants might balance it better. Can you post a picture?
robinrlg
Original Author
5 years ago
It is a large kitchen and completely open to the family room. The center island is 128" (we refer to it as the cooking island). There are also perimeter cabinets and a 48" gas range. The hardwood floors are being installed now and the cabinets will be installed in about a week, so I don't have a good picture yet to capture the size of the space. We have 10 foot ceilings and an entire wall of windows, so everything is very open. I have attached a picture from a few weeks ago. It is from the perspective of the kitchen looking into the family room. The "island" you see is just the support for what will be the raised portion of the island (the bar top). I hope this helps.
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Hi all, I am in the process of building a house. It's a modern, energy efficient house in Austin, TX. It's fairly small at 1250 sq ft with an open floor plan on the ground floor that consists of an open kitchen/living/dining area, the kitchen opening up immediately to your left as you walk in the front door. There is a 4'8" waterfall kitchen island in the middle of the kitchen. I am trying to figure out pendant lighting (type, size, and number) for above the island. I am going for a mix of modern farmhouse and more sophisticated boho chic. I had originally picked out two 16"W x 24"H vintage gold lanterns, but I now think these will be too large for the 4'8" island and overwhelm the space. I am alternatively considering two cylindrical or round mini pendants by Thomas O'Brien (called Katie) that are 7"W x 15.75"H or 12"W x 14"H. What size would be better? Would two be the right number of pendants?
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If you are fixated on warmer light, you could also consider getting a "dim to warm" light fixture. They are relatively new to the market and there isn't much available just yet. But a quick search finds something like: It is 3000K at full brightness. That's an appropriate day-time color temperature for most residential settings. But if you dim it down to darker "mood light" brightness, the color temperature drops to 2000K. That's a decidedly warm tone and more on par with what you might be used from dimmed incandescent lights.
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Hi Lizzie, The bottom of the pendant should be at least 75-90cm / 30” from the surface of the island. Pendant lights should be hung around 72” from the floor to the base of the light fixture. Good proportion practice should be exercised when hanging lights over a kitchen island, with equal space left between each pendant. Approximately 75cm (this depends on the diameter width). Smaller diameters can support a smaller gap between each fitting. To help give a visual reference before installing the fixture, a clever trick is to hang balloons roughly around the size as the pendants, this will help visualize the space more accurately and help determine is the light will look right. https://www.mullanlighting.com/blog/correct-height-hang-pendant-lights-chandeliers/ I hope it works out for you! Your friends at Mullan Lighting.
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I think one would be fine. I love the light too, BTW!
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