I would probably try to line things up:

Lighting plans are so confusing these days, aren't they? I have nothing to add, just inserting myself into this so I can read responses and get tips.

@palimpsest: Won't that placement create shadows on the counters? Or does the UCL negate that effect for it not to matter?

The 6" recessed lights are in all the wrong places in the top photo - i.e. near the wall oven instead of behind the adjacent countertop. You don't want a downlight right over the stovetop which will create a shadow on the cooktop itself; try one to either side. I do like the sconces surrounding the sink.

You don't want to have a light directly over your head. The cans should be more for general lighting but also on each side of the person working not directly behind their heads. The undercounter lighting provides the task lighting.

If we do the 6 in. Cans like pal suggested, is that enough to eliminate the 4 in cans at the corners of the island?

I don't know much about lighting, but I can discuss the problems with mine. My suggestions based on that.

My 6" ceiling cans are properly placed, close enough to the front of the perimeter cabs to illuminate the cabinet when I work without throwing a shadow. The under cab lights, which I requested be placed at the front of the cabinets to better illuminate the work area, still do not do so adequately. Not sure why. I usually don't even bother to turn them on. They are more decorative, for ambient light, than useful. Perhaps yours will be more useful. I don't do much cooking or prep on the perimeter, anyway.

I would not have wanted my ceiling lights behind me where they would throw shadows when I worked at both the perimeter and the island cabs.

Your island will be fine. I really like the pendant and the small cans for lighting the work area there. Great light. Nice if the pendants are on a dimmer. This is where you will usually work, of course.

For me, the hood lights are adequate light for the range top. I wouldn't need a light over the range, but lights to each side might be helpful.

Now lets talk about the pantry. I recently replaced the old fluorescent lighting that was in my existing pantry (which received new paint but no remodeling) with two 3-light surface mounted fixtures. Six 75 watt bulbs in that small place. I wanted to throw lots of light all over the place in what had always been a dark and dingy room. I love the result. Neither of the following pics is good, but you kinda get the idea. The lighting below is actually better than it appears in the first pic.

The idea of the mirrors at the end of the 12' long, 6' wide pantry to endlessly reflect the lights into infinity amused me. I put the pic here so you can see the surface mounted fixtures. I just wanted plain and bright.
{{gwi:2136070}}

Below is what I would (right now, off the top of my head) suggest for you. I just kinda liked the idea of sconces flanking the pantry instead of another overhead recessed light. I took the light out of the susan corner because I don't think you will often work in that corner. You will work on the two cab runs on each side of it, though.
{{gwi:2136071}}

Of course, I would probably change it tomorrow....and tomorrow....and. ....

It was fun to play with this. Maybe an idea or two will be worth considering. Now, the laundry is waiting for me.

We have four 6 inch cans in appx 12 X 14 space.
Light over island and range hood has 4 lights.
Under mount cabinet lighting and planning on light over the sink. We have several windows, but even at night the four 6 inch cans provide ample light. ( one of my fears was not having enough light)

I would go with what palimpsest suggested and line things up, we lined up ours and at first we did not have it that way either it would have looked strange if we did not, remember you are lighting the room with the 6" cans. You could still do the island cans, but does not look like you need them...depends on how dark your room is.

This room leans toward being very dark, so I definitely want to make sure it has adequate light. I'm no lighting expert; I really need help on this one!

I like how Pal's picture lines up the cans: It looks neat, balanced, and orderly, but I'm more concerned with it functioning well than looking pretty when a person looks at the ceiling (which is probably not too often.) I don't want to throw shadows on the counters or uppers when standing by them, which is the hesitation I have about running the cans in the aisles rather than close to the counter edges.

Thanks for sketching an idea out, Bellsmom, and for sharing the pics of your pantry. It's neat that you had some fun with a normally simple utilitarian space.

Our pantry is going to be "interesting" to light. The ceiling is only about 5' 7" tall, under a stair landing (which is just fine for me, since I'm just under 5'5"), so we're going to need something that doesn't get hot and doesn't hang in the head space at all. I'm considering rope lights wired in to a switch that turns on and off with the opening and shutting of the pantry door.

I'm glad your lighting choices are working for you, gaby. It sounds similar to what I was thinking of doing, so that's reassuring to hear how it's working.

I just found an article addressing can light locations and amounts for kitchens. I'm linking it below. I like the author's idea of centering the cans on where the upper doors meet or in the center of a single door, but I'm not sure how that translates to my corner area where the angled cabinet is located. (Did I mention I was considering doing a glass door and using that corner upper as a lit display cabinet?)

What do you all think?

Here is a link that might be useful: Adding Recessed Can Lighting in Your Kitchen--Mr. Sparky

Can you recess the lights in your pantry ceiling? Might be a good place for fluorescent lights? Recessed. Like skylights?

I have another idea about your recessed lights. I'll try to get it down tomorrow.

Can you afford the storage space for a display cabinet? I couldn't. Thought I could. Are you going to put susans in the corner wall cab? I have a reason for asking!!! Again, I'll try to get to it tomorrow.

Deleted a duplicate post.
Drat it. Sorry

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Mon, Jan 19, 15 at 19:31

It looks pretty good. Dimmers on everything, and consider three ways (which allow you to control the switch from multiple locations). Also - switch placement is very important too. When you walk in in the morning, which switch will you turn on first?

We used CREEs for the overhead cans, and with all the white we have, they're too much. (DH turns them on, I turn them off). My preference is the island light and the UCL on. (The dishwashing sink is a tad dark... but that's another story!). Good luck:)

The thing about recessed lighting is that there is a beam spread that can be adjusted by how far up the bulb is inside the can (this is adjustable and most people don't realize it) and is affected by the beam spread of the actual bulb. Lighting is actually most effective if it is laid out in a regular pattern with touching or overlapping beam spreads, for general lighting, and the task lighting is provided primarily by the undercounter lighting.

You don't get a great deal of additional utility from a can placed right on top of the oven or fridge because the oven and fridge have lights inside: the ceiling light won't shine Inside it. You might get better utility from pulling them further back. Right now you are creating a lot of "hot spots" on the upper cabinet doors

Yes, I think we can recess a light in the pantry ceiling between the joists of the landing, and I'd be totally fine with fluorescent lights in there, Bellsmom.

I was thinking of putting large serving bowls in the corner cabinet. They fit nicely, and take up most of the shelves. They are large, pretty, and white, so they'd display well behind glass. So, utility + storage. (?) If at some point I think I want it to be strictly storage, I'm ok with putting a curtain behind the glass. : )

My upper corner cabinet is 17.5" from the front of the shelves to the back of the cabinet. I still need to lay out a circle of paper in there to see if it makes sense to do the susans in that cabinet or not.

Oldbat2be, could you please clarify which drawing looks good? Yes, I'm absolutely planning on dimmers for the cans and the chandy (but not the UCL's.)

Switches are planned for on the wall to the right of the hutch, and also on a wall in the hall just below the island at the bottom of the drawing with 3 ways on the cans and chandy. We're planning to do switches for the UCL and sconces to the left of the sink, under the 12" cabinet.

Hmm, that's interesting that the CREE's are too bright for you. I wonder if that would be an issue with our maple cabs or not?

Ooch, good point about hotspots on the upper cabinet doors, Palimpsest. That I don't want. What I was attempting to go for and from the sounds of it, missing my goal, was to light up display areas on the range hood cover and a display cab above the oven cabinet.

Here's a rendering that I worked on over the weekend to give you an idea of what I'm attempting to do (minus the corner cabinet..I wasn't up for rendering that!) {{gwi:2136072}}

I have to say that I'm not happy with the little window and high cabinet over it in the painted version, so I think this wall will look more like this sketch, below (I haven't tackled painting this one up yet, but it's on my to-do list.)

I love the look of the second mockup. But you will have to be careful with a window over the range top. I have one and absolutely love it, but I would not want a wooden window sill or wood trim a few inches from where the flames might lick up around a pot.

I wrapped backsplash tile around the window and used no sill. (What looks whitish around the window is just the light reflecting off of the tile.) The frame around the glass itself is wood. That works fine. Not sure what your choices are if you are not using a tile backsplash. Your rendition looks like bead board, which is lovely. You could certainly do tile behind the range top only. That could be stunning and even exotic tile wouldn't cost much for that small area around the window. Just think of the window as the central piece in a tiled backsplash.

(I absolutely promise this is the last pic I will post in this thread!)

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 9:03

Do you think a tile frame around the window would be adequate, or does it need to be tiled all the way from the countertop to range hood? I do want beadboard everywhere else, but I have tiles that we could easily use for the frame of the window. I bought them on deep discount for an accent when I was considering doing subway tile for the backsplash.

I don't mind pictures being shared at all...I LOVE pictures! : ) They are so helpful for me when I try to visualize things.

Well, it's not a photo ;-)

I don't know if a tile frame around the window (and maybe under the window down to the range top?) would work or not. I tried a quick mockup of "tiling" the whole under hood area around the window and I don't like it. I was thinking of something that would introduce muted pattern and perhaps echo the design on the hood. I cannot think of a tile or color I would like other than your backsplash. This too much chops up the wall into quarters. Might look better with the corner and right side included though.

Here's the sketch. NOT a recommendation.
{{gwi:2136073}}

I do think you need something nonflammable on the wall behind the range top if the range top has no back at all. And I do not think a window sill is a good idea there.

Maybe, if you decide to do a window here, you can start another post and ask for opinions from those who understand the restrictions around ranges and flammable areas.

I like the window over the range and the tiles you've already purchased would be lovely. I think tiles with texture like that, rather than color, would look great around the window. It seems if you did a lot of color or a busy design, that it would just detract from the window and the other beautiful features you're planning. I think I would like the tiles to run around the whole window area as Bellsmom has done it rather than splitting the area with tiles just above counter and wood on the upper portion as it seems that would be too busy.

Unless you bump out the window over the cooktop, I don't think you'll have enough room for a window ledge. How about 30" countertops along this run?

I really like Oldbat2b's suggestion of 30" countertops. Then you could move the range top forward and you MIGHT have enough clearance to use beadboard behind the range. And the deeper countertops are wonderful work area. You just install the cabinets you already have 4" forward from the wall. The only price difference is for the larger countertop.

This is in response to a previous poster. I don't like this one--a crude suggestion of white tile in the whole area. It just chops everything up:
{{gwi:2136074}}

I do like this one:
{{gwi:2136075}}

I wonder if there is a generic 3" or 4" island trim back available that you could use for your range top. That might make the beadboard usable.

Of course the bay window Oldbat mentioned would be wonderful. Pricey but wonderful!

Also, if you are seriously considering window here, is the size fixed to that of the existing window? Can you go larger?

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 14:45

I'm going to start a new thread on the tiled window frame idea. : )

Thanks for starting the discussion here!

I love your renderings! So pretty. I can't wait to see the completed kitchen! Can you do without the wall cabinets and put two windows flanking the stove? I don't think you'd regret the windows and it seems like you will have plenty of storage.