My really tall DH resists any of my attempts to dangle things from the ceiling, so we don't have any pendants in the kitchen nor do we have a chandelier in the DR. To be honest, I think it makes the house airier and the ceilings look a bit taller not to have the visual obstruction or the physical reminder of the ceiling.

We skipped the pendants. I'm not crazy about the look and my husband didn't want the obstruction in his line of sight. I'm happy with our decision, but of course it's a personal preference.

In our case, the pendants over our peninsula add to the subtle definition of rooms...b/w the Kitchen and DR w/o the obstruction of line-of-sight or the bulk of cabinets. They maintain the open airy feeling of the two rooms but still offer the separation of the rooms without confining the spaces.

Our tall family has no problem with them at all. They're over our peninsula, not in the middle of an aisle and since we have sufficient overhang (we didn't skimp), the peninsula is deep enough (42") that they are not in anyone's way when sitting there (or getting up). [We range in height from the shortest (me) at 5'10" to my DS at 6'6".]

I've always liked this light. I don't know if it would work in your space, but with the fan over the island and a nice chadelier over the table...maybe something like this would work over the main sink?
{{!gwi}}From Kitchen plans

We chose not to do pendants due to low ceiling height in our kitchen and the desire to try to join the kitchen and dining room after removing a wall so that the pendants wouldn't feel as if they were dividing the room. We used a mix of 6inch and 4 inch cans with the 4 inch cans over the islands. I put the link to our kitchen so that you can see how ours looks without pendants. Maybe it's just a matter of personal taste but I think it looks fine without the pendants.

Here is a link that might be useful: island with no pedants

Thanks for your input everyone. Glad I'm not solo in my pendant resistance. : ) I think they can look great in some applications, but I don't think they're ideal in ours.

I was trying to upload a pic of the room so y'all could double check my suspicions, but my computer isn't reading the disks from the camera at the moment. :(

BJ, I love, love your kitchen. Beautiful space! Thanks for including your link.

As far as the cans go, how close should they be installed to the cabinet faces? I'm going to research that next, but if anyone wants to "enlighten" me (pun intended)...

I opted out of pendants, although it was suggested over my island.

Mostly, I dislike pendants in kitchens. I like the sight lines open.

Since my kitchen opens up to other rooms with dangling lights, I thought it would be too much to have anything but can lights in the kitchen. Thus, we have can lights where three pendants would have been. It provides nice even light.

I too am a person with pendants over my large island. I have lived without pendants over my large island and I never felt that I needed more light.

I prefer modern simple decor without ornamentation. Pendants did not fit in with my decor scheme.