My first question is how high is your ceiling?

Next, what is the main purpose for these lights?

Are they general lighting, spot lighting, or accent lights (e.g. wall washing)?

Since you said you were using 6" cans, I'll assume that these are for general lighting, and that you will have flood bulbs in them.

If that is the case:

It looks to me like in either design, the lights over the dw, sink, and range area are too close to the wall - they will mostly just light up the upper cabinet doors. and cast a shadow on the counter top under the uppers.

Is there an upper over the sink? If not, then add another 4" with a spot right over the sink, just to light the sink - that is always nice.

What is the purpose of the light in front of the fridge? It looks too close as well. It will mainly light up the front/top of the fridge.

For general lighting, with 6" cans, with flood bulbs:

I would move the top 3 lights (dw, sink, range) 1.5 feet down, and 1 foot left.

The bottom 2 lights (ref, and to the left of that) I'd move up 6 inches.

The light in front of the pantry, I'm not sure what to do - I'm a "symmetry" kind of guy, so having that one offset like that would bother me - but I can see why you want it there. Personally, I would line it up with the other two on the left.

Even though you have additional lights over the island, you will still want the overheads to give it enough light most of the time, and just use the pendants for times when you need more.

As to whether you want 7 or 9 lights, that is a question of how much light you want, and what size bulbs you will be using. Seven 6 inch cans with 100 watt bulbs will be a lot of light for a kitchen this size, but if the cans are only 75w, then you might be better with 9.

If you use 9 x 100w, keep in mind that a dimmer for that many lights will be pretty expensive if I remember correctly, like $60 or more. You should check that out.

Also, the 6" cans often come cheaper when you buy a "contractor" pack which usually has 6 lights in it.

Just my $0.02.

They are definitely not too close to the wall. Otherwise, you'd be working in your own shadow.

The main "problem" with both layouts is that there isn't something right above your range. I like the 3 feet apart version better, where the two on either side of your range should work cover the work area.

As far as 6" vs 5" vs 4", it does depend a lot on your ceiling height and such. Even the spacing does. For instance, if your ceiling is low, you want them closer together, because they will flood a smaller portion of your work area. But then you might want the smaller cans (we did 4" cans with a 7'3" ceiling. Yes, it's low!).

I'm not an expert, but I'm really happy with our lighting. I'll tell you what we did since I don't feel confident critiquing someone else's plans.

First of all we have dark stone counters, medium dark stained cabinets, light maple floors and 8' 4" ceilings painted (off) white. We used 5" canned lights around the peripheral counters where there were uppers (5 lights), they are 4' apart. We used 3 additional can lights for general lighting. We used pendants over our 2 sinks and we have a fixture over our peninsula. Our kitchen is 13" x 16" but the fridge and pantry spill out of this area into the eating area (so one of the can lights mentioned below is actually in the dining area.)

Now more specific:

1. 8 can lights on 2 different switches. 3 of these cans are on a switch with a dimmer. They are for more "general" lighting and are the ones we turn on when we enter the kitchen. One is in the center of the kitchen and the other 2 are on the main walkway through the kitchen--they ended up being about 1 1/2 feet 2 1/2 feet out from pantries at each end of the kitchen. The other 5 can lights are right over the edge of the peripheral counters (with upper cabs.,) much like you have yours placed. I find I rarely need to turn these on because the 3 cans provide enough general light for the tasks done on these counters. When I do turn them on, it's really excellent light--just not needed 95% of the time.

All the other lights can be turned on according to the work zone needed:

2. Peninsula light (on dimmer switch): presently we have a 3-light fixture over the peninsula. It looks a little too pool-hall for me so it will eventually be put back in it's orignal spot over the table. But the light from the 3 40-w bulbs is just right. This is the main prep zone.

3. Prep sink lights. We have 9 feet of window above our counter with prep sink. We put electrical for 3 pendants in this area. 1 pendant (over the baking area) has never been put in and the pendant at the other end has a defective compact fluourescent in it and doesn't work most of the time. So in reality, it's like having one pendant over the prep sink and it provides good light. I'm looking forward to getting the pendant in over the mixer, though.

4. Main sink--we have 2 pendants on dimmers over it.

5. Range hood--has lights that get used a lot.

6. Undercabinet lights (6 of them on 3 switches)--never get used and were a waste of money. I did use uc lights in our old kitchen, but they are overkill in this one.

There is no light directly in front of the fridge--it's not needed since the fridge has a good light in it. Our pantry is next to the fridge and one of the can lights is in front of the pantry.

Hope this helps!

rachelle_g said:
> They are definitely not too close to the wall. Otherwise, you'd be working in your own shadow.

I disagree.

If there are upper cabinets on that wall, those can lights will be 12" from them. That will only light the cabinet fronts, and the 12 inches of counter top that sticks out from under the uppers, and the counter top under the over head cabinets will be dark.

If they are moved out a bit, you won't be working in your shadow, unless you are 8 feet tall, and it will more evenly light the entire counter top.

If you don't believe me - go get one of those cheap shop lights (with the spring clip, that uses regular bulbs), and put a flood bulb in it. Go to a friends house and try out the lights in different places (similarly placed to the plan you have).

Another thing to keep in mind about can size, is that generally speaking, you can't get high wattage bulbs in the smaller sizes. So, for example, if you wanted to put 125w bulbs in, you can only get them in the R40 size (which is what the 6" uses). Many of the less expensive 4" cans only accept 50Watt bulbs.

Based on our experience, you will have plenty of light with the 4' apart version. Our space is just slightly smaller and we have only 5 recessed cans spaced even further (each with a 100W flood bulb) and they provide sufficient light.

However, your cans - especially the top one, are too close to your cabinets. I personally would center them in the aisles between the cabinets and island which as Dlseek noted would be about 1 1/2 feet from the perimeter cabinet edge)

When we planned our kitchen, back in 2004-2005, the common advice at the time was to center the can light on the edge of the counter. We followed this advice for our peripheral counters (with upper cabinets) and it is excellent light

6" can lights with flood bulbs essentially provide diffuse ambient light... in other words, they are designed to light up the whole room, not provide task light above a counter like you have them laid out.

Before we demo'd our old kitchen we had five of these in a space about 9x9 and they provided lots of light... too much really, so I had them on a dimmer. Personally, I never liked this scenario (actually, I hated it), which is why we went with 4" LV Halogen lights in our new kitchen. We have 13 total in a larger area. The Halogens light up the counters, etc. without making the room itself seem overly bright.

However, since we all have to live within a budget, the 6" cans do have their place since they are MUCH less expensive. In your case I would tend to agree with dlsink and move the cans into the middle of the open spaces around the island... maybe about 7-8 total? I would also put a decicated light over the sink.

First of all, thanks for the suggestions and feedback!!

The ceiling is about 8 feet tall.
In my last home, the can lights were placed just a few inches in front of the base cabinets, and I do recall feeling as though I cast a shadow. However in that house, the ceiling was 9ft tall and we didn't have enough can lights.

- regarding a light above the sink, would you center the light DIRECTLY above the sink (basically, about 12 inches from the wall)?

Oh and I should add, I really want these to be able to illuminate the majority of the kitchen, as I don't want to go through the expense of under cabinet lighting. The lights that you see marked on my layouts are all that I'll have in this kitchen, however the kitchen does have an eat in area with one light...and there is a window above the sink.

First, full disclaimer, I am by no means an expert!! I think it's important to get the specs for the cans you plan to use, and there may be recommendations for placement, spacing, etc.

But, this has been bugging me and I tested things out a little in my kitchen, with 4' cans centered at 25' from the wall and 87' ceiling. Our 12' deep upper cabinets (16.5' away from the counter) cast a shadow on the back ~5' of the countertop. I DO NOT cast a shadow on the countertop. If the lights were moved back behind me (further away from the wall into the aisle), then I WOULD cast a shadow (I confirmed that by leaning over the countertop so that my head was placed further in front of the can...).

If you sketch it out on paper (sort of an elevation drawing, looking edge on at the run of cabinets), you'll start to see what the options are. By moving the cans farther into the aisle, you would remove the shadow cast by the upper cabinets on the back of the counters. But you start adding a shadow that you cast on the front of the countertop (which, IMHO is worse), because most of the lighting now comes from behind you. It could very well be that different types of can lighting might mitigate that shadow, but just thinking about the basic paths the light would take, I'm having a hard time imagining how that could be. But again, I'm no expert!

Here is a link that might be useful: one article on the topic