Hi everyone, I've been a long time lurker and occasional poster on this site and always find excellent suggestions here. I was wondering if I could have some advice on where to place pendant lighting over our kitchen island (with raised breakfast bar area). We ordered 3 pendant lights but am not sure where we should hang them. I'm attaching a link to the floor plan of my kitchen for reference. The island is sort of a stretched L-shape, so the placement is causing us some confusion. Specific questions I have are: 1) Do you center the lights over the work/prep area or over the raised bar area? 2) How high to do you hang the lights (how much space between counter/bar and bottom of light?) 3) Do we spread the lights out or have a closer grouping of 3 lights on one side of the l-shape? If the shorter grouping, which side - sink side or the other side? 4)How far apart do you place the pendants? Thanks so much in advance! DB Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Floor Plan

I don't have pendents or recessed lighting - so no help there, but if you don't have under cabinet lighting, add that to your list. My under cabinet lighting is the most helpful lighting I have. At a guess, I would say 2 pendants over the island, but your lighting store should also be able to help you. It depends on what you use and if your recessed lights light up the island - then pendants aren't necessary. Change out the track light over the sink for sure.

Thank you, @wdccruise. That is quite the product! More color temps than I thought were possible, plus able to link without being physically linked. AND multiple dimming levels, not just high/low. You are right about the location of the hardwire This is the one cabinet where the wire would be visible if I moved the light forward. I disliked the fluorescent fixture, but its location did not vex me terribly. Thank you again. The one thing I wish the recommended fixture had was availability in something other than white. I thought maybe brushed nickel would be nice for this one location.

The drawing shows a single pendant fixture over the island. That pendant is just a ceiling mounted fixture, so there are many choices of size and number of lamps (say, "sockets"). For scale and openness from two directions in the Kitchen, you probaby want a fixture with more than a single lamp, or go to (2) pendant fixtures. Since this island is also your prep space, the type of fixture you choose will also dictate how successful task lighting on this counter is performed. _________________________ Unfortunately, the electrical drawing uses a symbol showing all the ceiling fixtures as ceiling mounted. I would assume by placement that they are actually recessed lights. And the "dot" used as a hashmark on the dimension lines adds to the confusion as well as other drawing methods chosen. The ceiling lighting in the Kitchen appears to be layed out purely by 2-D paper aesthetics and not function. The "4 corner" lights are lighting up the floor instead of the counters. Yes, you have UCLs, but you can see they do not cover all the counter surfaces, the insides of lower and upper cabinets, and the "4 corners" will create shadows from humans at the counter and lower cabinets, so UCL's only supplement counter task lighting. Depending on your contractor, the electrical plan produced by an architect can be beneficial or can be used to work against you. Most residential architects, without using consulants or not having any field construction experience, are not experts in MEP coordination issues, current NEC code, or if they have not been exposed to commercial projects they would probably have little knowledge of lighting and HVAC. It is not a knock on your particular architect, it is the norm, but I say all this because there could be some issues with this electrical plan. The dimensional placement is good to get the design ideals you want. However, if not fully coordinated with all information, some issues can arise. For instance, the Pantry light has "S" which I believe to be "semi-flush," centered on the ceiling, but are there cabinets all the way to ceiling? If you only use the left door, how do you get to the switch? Another example, in what I think is the Dining Room, the Pendant ("P") is centered over the opening to Kitchen, but the island or Kitchen window is not in line, and is your dining table centered on this opening, or would doing so cause circulation problems next to the buffet nook? Also the Kitchen outlets indicated fall short of NEC requirements. If the contractor used this drawing as just a general guide, then they may have accounted for additional outlets in their pricing, or since there is probably a general note saying the contractor must adhere to code, they will fill in the blanks and make some decisions on their own. That is the rub, will there be a charge later for extras, and do the "decisions on their own" go against the intent of design. For example, counter outlets max 24" reach. The range outlet may be stuck in your backsplash instead of hidden down low behind the range. The hood J-box needs an exact placement for the style of hood. The DW requirements for a cord have recently changed, as have island power. On small jobs typically the architect is done after drawings, so it is up to the sophistication of the G.C. or the owner to coordinate info to keep with the design intent and prevent redo's and extra costs.