I think the concern is whether the light will cast a shadow of your head in the middle of your countertop. I just sketched your proposed arrangement on a piece of paper, using 1"=1'. My best guess is that your proposed location (~3' from the wall) will be fine. With that placement, the shadow of your head, if standing straight, should wind up near the front edge of the countertop. If you bend over a bit while working, the shadow will be worse.

I wouldn't go a lot farther from the wall than 3', though.

We have a 9 ft ceiling, so that should be a bit less of a problem.

This is the layout that I came up with. I started with the upper left can light spaced 3 ft off of both walls and then laid out the rest off of that one, spaced about 4.5 ft apart. Those will be 6" cans. We may do the Cree CR6 (EcoSmart brand) bulbs, if my wallet can survive the hit.

This post was edited by gpraceman on Thu, May 2, 13 at 14:17

I am also looking at recessed lighting. My ceilings are 8' though. Is it best to stay between 24" and 36" out from the wall? I really have no idea. The current cans seem like they are only a few inches out from the top of the cabinets. Maybe 2". But our old cabinets did not go all the way to the ceiling. The new cabinets will stop about 2.5" from the ceiling and then we will have a cove molding to the ceiling. So I am pretty sure we need to move the lights out at least a few inches. Although I am not sure how much is ideal.