The first thing that came to my mind was candles! Not very practical though. I'll be interested to see what other Houzzers come up with. I think that the chaining idea is a good one and these days you can get some very bright LED lights that are very lightweight. If you put some sort of track lighting on the wall, people on one side of the table could wind up getting light in their eyes. Or find studs that you can connect a decorative track on the ceiling. Maybe a track like this one would work: https://www.houzz.com/products/george-kovacs-gk-lightrail-led-monorail-kit-p4305-084-prvw-vr~36159419  Have you thought about making the dining area a sitting area and putting the dining area in a better spot? It seems to me that adding a light that doesn't quite look right is throwing good money after bad. How about finding an interim solution while you figure out what to do with the insulation and work on stabilizing your floor lamp. How about getting something flat for the floor lamp to sit on and then putting some weights on top of the base. You could have a piece of thick acrylic custom cut or go for plywood. What a beautiful cat! : ) Rhoda

Hello, In addition to hand-building copper lanterns, Bevolo also has iron chandeliers and vintage fixtures. We offer a complementary design serviceand can scale out the proper size fixtures for your rooms, based on your ceiling heights/table dimensions. From your picture I think our Spanish Stables No.006 chandelier would look great over the table. Another option that would work well is the Square Hanging Light. Also, we have a pendant option that is very similar to what you have pictured for your peninsula, called the Barber Shop pendant. When mounting over a table we typically recommend the bottom of the fixture be at 3'-4' above the table. Let us know if we can help you. Happy decorating! -Kiley @ Bevolo

Thanks for your suggestions. I am afraid I can’t afford anything over $300. I think you are all suggesting a dark metal light? Will that show up with the navy painted wall? The ceiling height is 8’.

(not a pro) Is your dining table going to be centered in the room? If so, I'd want a chandelier centered in the room, over the table. (That's the orange circle below.) Then I think I'd want 4 can lights spaced evenly around the room (purple dots) but I'd ask here first too :) If your table will be offset within the room, I might still advocate for an electric box in the center of the room and swag a chandelier to a hook, in case you ever decide to move the table to the center. Can you get into the space for a bit to do the balloon trick? This is how I determined the height for a light that replaced the one you can see behind it. I moved the table under the balloons and we had a few dinners there, adjusting the strings until we got the heights that felt comfortable. (Kept it as reference for the electrician.) Did the same trick for placement of pendants over the island. You could move your balloon light (or however you do a mockup - maybe it's a box mimicking a rectangular light) around the space and view it in different positions and from different angles. This is so much easier than moving a real light after installation! (^^ that's the before. Below is the after. If it looks high, I had to accommodate people 6'6" and 6'7". But I felt more confident about placement because we sat under the balloon 'light' to try it out.)