What a great treat to put the kids to bed, have dinner w/ DH (with a side of dust) and come back to find some great helpful answers! Emily, you are right about it being a personal choice. We homeschool as well but will not be using this table so much for school work. Being able to have ambient lighting at the table is a higher priority for us, but our new cans may still give pretty good light at the table when combined with whatever we put over it. Thank you, vate, for all the information and picture. That granite. Is. Amazing. I have never seen anything like it! Your kitchen is beautiful too. We are taking out cabinets that are the same color as yours. It didn't work to keep and refinish them because our layout is completely different, but I have always loved the color. I saw your pendants at RH for the first time today (maybe you posted it on another thread which made me go look). Don't know how I've missed them all this time. They look great over your island. I tend toward more traditional style and those lights could fit well with just about any style, I think. I'm glad to hear about the effect of the bottom lens. Since I first posted I found this light at Hudson Valley. Currently it comes with 8" or 15" glass, but they have 12" still available that have been discontinued. I am now thinking of 3 of these over the island with 12" glass. They are a little more moderate in size but each can take a 100W bulb, so light would be ample over the island. I agree that the Eden and Atlantis would not work in a cluster. The WAC catalog actually has a very cool picture of the Clarity in a cluster in some commercial building. At first I liked Eden best, but the more I look at it, the more Clarity sticks with me. I may try to use one of the other two elsewhere in the house. We had our cans put in today, and DH put bulbs in all of them when he got home. It is so bright! When we bought the house and remodeled 15 years ago we only put in 5 plus a light over the sink and one bad one over the table. As of today, we have 12 cans; when the kitchen is finished we will also have the pendants and a sink light. Plus new much larger windows.) Table pendant will be where blue circle is in front of bump out (where the chair is in the photo) The cans, spaced in no particular pattern; we left some existing ones in and filled in the gaps. Looks like a constellation and won't make it into House Beautiful, but who cares? It's bright!!! Thanks everyone!

This is a fun thread! I wonder how many of us garden. I'm a bit fanatical. I've never really had an eat-in kitchen, just our soon-to-be-ex-kitchen's peninsula seating. Since the peninsula was our main prep area and since sitting there afforded us excellent views of all the dishes, knives, cutting boards, etc. used in prep, it was not very relaxing to sit at! And now that I think of it, I don't have a lot of seating in the garden(s) either. One 25'x75' plot at our local "community gardens" (I have to drive there) consists of 27 raised beds with paths between them. I do sit on the edges of the raised beds, but more often at one end underneath a tree, since I like to look at the whole plot and the bees, dragonflies, butterflies, flowers, veggies, etc. from that end. At home, the veggie garden is in a fenced-off area to prevent critters from getting in, though there are roses and clemati growing on the pergola gateway to it. So I guess my favorite thing is to sit on the patio and be surrounded by the beds of flowers, herbs, shrubs, and trees when at home. I do like to sit looking at the crammed-full "kitchen garden" though. I can hardly wait until we get to eat out there every night again. Neither of those really counts as "in the garden," but they're more in the garden than overlooking the garden from, say, a deck raised above them or something. The main exception is at home when the mosquitos start coming out. We're looking forward to our new sunroom where we can look out at the gardens without (my husband) being eaten alive! bean

Thanks Palimpsest....so even though the lights around the house are square, you think the one under the porticol can have a completely different shape? I love the ones you included in the link...I will have to look at them more closely. My budget is open (well not completely open!) but I didn't know how much a hanging outside porticol light would cost, so I didn't have a set amount in my mind. I guess if you asked my husband what the budget is, he probably has a definite number in his mind, but he doesn't need to know the final cost :-)

In your case you are not looking for swing arm and that is why you are finding it hard. you either want a gooseneck or an adjustable sconce.. try those terms in place. also how deep is the head board you many not even need all that jazz just something that is extended? lastly how will you turn them on and off BTW Holtkotter is one of the best lighting brands out there, made in Germany, not china hence the price tag.