I just went through with this and it wasn't easy to come up with a plan. Definately take this to a lighting store and get input. I went to 2. The plans each came up with were very similiar. Beware - the best laid plans often go to pot once you go to actually install those lights. For us, 95% of the cans were not placeable according to lighting store plan - joist fell right in the middle of every spot. We found an even better plan I love. Here's what I would do based on what each lighting store told me. This would change according to your real life dimensions based on tips laid out below this: 1. place one a foot in front of the fridge 2. place one on each side of the range 3. place one over the sink and one on each counter beside the sink (3 in a line) Do you need to light the area in front of the island? I didn't light walkway areas and was told not to. They said it's lighting the floor and unecessary. Additional tips: 1. There is a formula that may or may not be an old wives tale, but I wanted to meet it regardless in case there was any validity: length of room times width times 1.5. That's how many watts you need for general illumination. So then take your bulbs - are they 50? Add them up. I have almost double what I need but fully customizable so I won't be using all at once unless I need a ton of light. 2. Find out what your lighting radius is from each bulb. My 50 watt par 30 halogens were 3.2 feet so I made sure any dead spots were in unnecessary places. Par 30 if you don't know refers to size of the bulb. 3. if you put the cans too close to the uppers, it will create hot spots on the cabinets. If you place them too far back, you will be working in your own shadow. The ideal is centered right over the counter edge.

Your photo was too small on my screen to see, so I'll just give you general advice: - You want your cans placed somewhere around the edge of the counter to 3" from the edge. That is so that you don't have the lighting behind you while you work at the counter (which would cast a shadow where you'd want the most light). Furthermore, rule of thumb is that the lights are about 4'-5' apart from each other, unless you are using the 4" cans which must be closer to each other (not sure about the 4" cans distance). - don't have lights so close to upper cabinets that you won't be able to open an upper cabinet door without scraping the recessed can trim. - where there is no countertop, like at the fridge or at a pull-out cabinet, you may want to put the can a little farther away from the wall than you would over the countertop so that the light sheds on the pull-out (when it's pulled out) or into the fridge. Don't worry whether the cans will all be in a line or not - no one will notice, and you want to avoid the "airplane runway" look anyway. - you don't have to worry about lighting a range or cooktop, assuming you'll have a hood or OTR MW with lights in it. - there is no point in spending money on cans that will just be lighting the floor. - you should have a light dedicated to the sink. I have seen some people put two small 4" cans over the sink so that there is no shadow anywhere while standing at the sink. We opted for one 5" can, and have been happy with it. - one exercise is to go to Home Depot, get a couple of extension cords and a couple of plug-in light sockets that can be used with flood bulbs. Stand on a ladder and hold them up, or have someone hold them up, where you think you want the lights, and see how it looks and where the light is shed. DH and I did this, and it was the best tool ever to show us where to place our cans.

Thanks for your replies. Here are the answers to your questions - The foot print of the space inside the kitchen is just under 9feet X 6feet. Additional natural light comes from the top left area of the diagram. Just outside the frame of the diagram is the dinette area which has windows on both walls. There is a door with windows which leads to back porch in the diagram. We had a light designer come to the house and after taking into his feedback as well as the link Lawrence Sprowls directed me to, we are going to keep the 4" LED cans and not switch to 6" inch cans. We are also going to focus the lights on the surface areas where food prep happens. I've updated my diagram to reflect the light which comes in through the adjacent dinette area and the back porch door. I've also added the locations of proposed 4" inch cans. I don't know if we should put another 4" can where the circled #3 is in the diagram. We aren't planning to light those cabinets which have windows in them. We don't prep food on that side of the kitchen; it is space where the mini-oven, Google home and music player has lived.

By the way, for future passerbyers, it seems like there are a few schools of thought on ideal placement of recessed lights…from electricians vs light experts/kitchen designers… I had read advice about placing lights away from the wall at 18” (design forums, rationale is it is the halfway point between face of uppers, and edge of counter, maximizing unobstructed light on counters/prep area, supplementing with undercabinet lighting), 24” (kitchen design forum feedback, placing at the edge of countertop, to light more space on your counter, including reducing shadow cast by the uppers closer to backsplash, but accepting some shadow from your body) and 30” (electrician, aesthetic and aisle lighting….this is what confused me and brought me here, do not recommend, it will cast shadows on your counters). I guess the efforts are to optimize lighting content of uppers, counters, while minimizing shadow cast by uppers and by our heads and bodies, with lights to the right and left of where you’d work. The answer is probably somewhere between 18” to 24”. Since I am lazy and I hate turning on my undercabinet lighting, and am not a serious home cook anyway, I wanted my ceiling lights to be the main daily workhorse light… they ended up at the edge of my countertop - 25”, slightly in from 26” depth countertops… My uppers will come out to 15”. it was done this morning before I saw some of your comments based on the attached diagram of lighting tips from another houzz pro user: https://www.houzz.com/magazine/how-to-properly-light-your-kitchen-counters-stsetivw-vs~117403233 I only bought a box of six cans! But I think I could have gone with Hallett & Co.’s suggestion of putting six neatly along the edges but I hadn’t thought of that! Oh well. All in all, we probably have enough lighting - since our house is small and open, we are probably ok at ~7500 lumens for a 130 sqft kitchen. Another rule of thumb I saw was to multiply the square footage by 30 or 40 foot candles to get a lumen range. For example: 100 square feet x 30 to 40 foot candles = 3000 to 4000 lumens. We will have LED tape that is 300 lumens per linear ft. (~10ft under uppers, 3000 lumen) Above the sink, I wanted a pendant but with two lights to minimize shadows, and so will have a two-light track/spotlight pointing down, about 2 x 500 lumens (1000 lumens) For each recessed can, most GU10 LEDs I have seen cap out at about 500 lumens per bulb. (6 x 500 lumens, 3000 lumens) The linear LED pendant above the peninsula is 600 lumens