I guess it depends on what one's used to Standard 8' ceilings here were a challenge to me in our new house, because it was the lowest ceiling heigh I ever had. I'm not from the US and other countries I lived in had a different standard that was higher ceiling(maybe due to metric system lol). Growing up in the older part of a very old big city-ceilings were even higher. But I loved the house a lot and was willing to work with whatever it had. And it had 8' ceiling everywhere but the entry(which by the way was altered by the previous owners to become higher) and the living room. 7 in the dining but during remodel we were able to raise them up a foot. My way of handling the thing was: a) a thought of crown moulding-previous owners put it in their master bath(tiny supermodest space really)-but I swear to you it looked at least a foor higher than the adjusting bedroom. this thought never became reality though because expenses grew and had to give up on some things. crown moldings were the first to go. lol b) skylights. previous owners had installed several and they drastically change perception of height and space..for the better. so we installed another one when we had our addition built. It also helped to break rectangularity of the room..we also didn't put a door between it and a master bath but left arch opening between them (the toilet got its own small room of course). Otherwise we'd be left with extremely boring room that's too long, too dark, and doesn't inspire any desire to stay there. Giving it more depth and light helped tremendously c) and very important as I agonized over it. Painting the celings the same color-or the color that would look like the same color(which was, in our case either 50% or 66% percent of the initial formula), as the walls. The lines blend, you don't have this feeling the ceiling is about to fall on you. I'm 5.4 so not tall at all..but I can be sensitive to spaces, and sometimes weirdly sensitive. Part of my physique. Lol. d) ditching some common rules. I did install central fixtures where it made sense, and pendants, and sconces..and it took attention away from the lower ceiling, because now you had something interesting to look at instead of calculating ceiling height I have table lamps and floor lamps too, so layers of lighting. I read so much about it all and was in that state of don't do this and don't do that..until I became very tired of it and just took from all this reading whatever I deemed helpful and disregarded everything else. Freedom! now your ceilings are lower, and your kitchen sounds challenging. Regarding kitchen-Kitchen forum is (justly so) considered the best in the matters of planning and advice on everything kitchen, so post your plan there and I believe you'll get many helpful thoughtful answers, regarding layout, workability, etcetera They are very sensitive to specific needs of specific person/family in a specific kitchen, and your plan with dimensions and if possible photos of the space will be very helpful to them to suggest things specific to your kitchen tailored to your needs/wants/budget etc. If you ask very general question it's great when you just want to have an interesting discussion. But if you're willing to get specific advice, and often very good one, I highly advise Kitchens forum. Just copy-paste your question there, and add even a basic rough plan with dimensions. And several pics to show different walls and how kitchen connects to other rooms in the house. I remember myself daring to ask on some site that had this option "Ask a designer" a general question "What do I do with low ceiling" and I got a very kind but very standard answer to paint everything white. It's okay, one can paint everything white of course; especially works well with high ceilings, architectural moldings, and in Paris lol), but didn't provide me with any insight. Sorry for the long post!

Hey Beth, do you think something like this would work in the space for pendants or do you think it's too big for the space I had mentioned earlier? https://www.wayfair.com/lighting/pdx/brayden-studio-burner-3-light-kitchen-island-pendant-brys7567.html Edison style lights are pretty yellow, with everything else being around 3000k, do you think a regular white halogen bulb would work instead? Another thought was something like this in that space to bring out some of the black in the granite picture earlier. https://www.wayfair.com/lighting/pdx/brayden-studio-daniell-3-light-kitchen-island-pendant-byst8275.html Do you have any thoughts on one over the other? Also, for the dining room table we were talking last night about maybe a hanging drum like this? https://www.wayfair.com/lighting/pdx/willa-arlo-interiors-gaetan-3-light-led-drum-chandelier-wrlo1657.html

You can get sloped ceiling recessed housings so those sloped ceiling can also get lights. Without knowing the dimensions of the great room, I would defer to the ID and add 4 each side. Install a dimmer switch. For kitchens, we generally arrange recessed LED's with the center of light is directly over edge of counter at work areas. This places them sufficient distance away from upper cabs while washing the counter area with light. Spacing depends on layout ( a floor plan or pictures would help) but are generally 3 - 4' on center. Pull the one in front of fridge out to 3' or so depending on fridge depth. I agree with Patricia on under cabinets and pendants. Pendants are generally centered on island. Under cabinets come in different configurations from the string/rope LED's to strip fixtures. Most of the string/rope lights require a power supply that needs an outlet. We typically locate them on the upper shelf of a cabinet and run a small low voltage wire down the inside of the cabinet face to underside of cabinet. You can also place these inside a cabinet if you have some glass fronts and items you would like to illuminate. Strip LED's can be wired right to the line feed.

Gimbals will not move enough to meet the pitch of your ceiling unless the pitch is quite low. Your installation requires downlights that match the angle of your ceiling. Take a look at this spec sheet. Remodeling will require a different housing than new construction. https://s2.img-b.com/build.com/mediabase/specifications/elco/495187/elco-el616k-specification-sheet.pdf I recommend you select a housing that takes a regular medium base screw-in bulb. Then you can later decide what type of bulb you wish to use in it to get the quality of light you desire.