Why not put pot lights over the island? Three flush mounted lights lined up in a row would clutter the ceiling, I think.

I feel like the kitchen is missing something if I just have pot lights. I had to paint in the cabinets bc they are not done yet… this was one idea

I like the idea of using something sculptural because it looks intentional. Two looks nice. Do you need 3?

The way your kitchen is laid out, I think pots would definitely look better than flush mount.

That’s a different look than the typical pot lights - I like the idea too. I’m thinkng you’d need to make sure the lights don’t light up the area too much. With either pendants or pots, it’s a single bulb aiming down. You can control output with ”wattage” but I’m not sure how that would work. For the light you show in mockup, two would certainly be sufficient. Maybe a knowledgeable person in a good lighting store would have experience with your idea?

Here are some options for semi flush fixtures

There is IMO never too much lighting in a kitchen but I hand pendants all the time in 8' ceilings never an issue and honestly IMO a much nicer look than flush mounts oe semi flush.

As above lighting is very important for your work zones in a kitchen. 450 lumens plus at the counter without shadows is the minimum for task lighting. Pendants may help with that. But they are more often considered ambient area lighting. And they can be decorative. Don't neglect the main functional character of your space.

Depending on the island itself, I would probably do a flush mount on either and and recessed in the middle or vice versa, rather than three flushmounts in a row.

I feel like a ceiling can take more multiples of pendants just because they are suspended in space and don't really contact the ceiling directly, but three relatively large flush mounts right at the ceiling can be a bit much.

I always find kitchen lighting an interesting topic. I am renovating and putting in a fair amount of lighting. But when we renovated the bathroom immediately above the kitchen about 6 years ago, the electrician told us to disconnect the recessed lights in the kitchen because they were hazardous.

So for six years we have been using the 60-75 watt bulb in the cheap range hood as the single source of lighting in the kitchen. Not that I would recommend it, but it got the job done.

Use a dimmer switch for both island and sink so you can control light output.

I always loved erikanh’s semiflush lights pver her island. Maybe semiflush would work with 8 ft ceilings.

The semi-flush fixtures you are considering are too busy for me in multiples. I think what @roarah showed look better. I have recessed lighting over my island with a 9 foot ceiling and they are fine. I don't think I will add pendants when I remodel.

When we've done polls regarding pendants vs recessed light over islands in this forum, the results are usually 50/50.

I have skipped pendants over my last 2 islands and a peninsula. For the new build I did 2 pendants over the large windows over the sink area. I wanted the eye to be drawn all the way through the kitchen and not be stopped by pendants over the island.

We designed in lots of lighting for the whole house with separate switches/zones and dimmers, so you have flexibility.

We did this and it really doesn’t clutter and there’s a dimmer so it’s very flexible with how much light- I think a solid shade would have been 😕 but I love these