I really love the lights you have now. I have pendants that are very similar to benson, but in oil rubbed bronze. They do not throw light out, just down. In fact I just had more recessed lights added to the kitchen, because they didn't light up the area enough.I love my lights, but wish I had choosen something with glass. Now that the electrician added more pot lights its all good. And I love my undercabinet lights and have them on all the time.

Thanks for the reply, Positano. Your kitchen is beautiful!!! Maybe I should re-think the lights. The glass lights really do light up the kitchen and they are on dimmers so we can dim them, as well. Restoration Hardware has a sale on their lighting right now so I thought that it would be a good time to order. I am going to order some pulls from them so I thought it would be a good time to have everything shipped at once. I am in Canada.

I ordered 3 of the 7inch benson pendants for over my island. I've always enjoyed restoration hardware lighting, I have a set of sconces in another room. Ended up getting the satin over the polished because I was worried it would be too shiny for the pallet I've got.

One word of caution if you get the 7inch ones...they don't have the clips on the outside to close the glass, they just have a nice screw instead. Something I was miffed at when I get them but I've learned to like it. Other issue is that the bigger pendants also go up higher into the U bracket at the top, whereas the 7 inch ones are a bit shorter in that area.

Overall I'd say the quality of the benson pendants is very good, and the milk glass spreads the light evenly. Though what you have now will obviously spread more into the room because the benson is a bell. It just depends on your idea of what works. The light will be more concentrated onto your island. They would look great in your kitchen though.

i have the 11" benson pendants. i love them! they are a total focal point in the room. but i don't use them for general lighting. here's a pic:

Hi, door1. I love your pendents, very nice and cool. I almost went with that one but ordered something else. But they fit perfectly in your beautiful kitchen!

I liked those pendants too, but ended up going with the Murray Feiss Parker pendants for cost reasons. I really like them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Feiss Parker Pendants

srg215 - may I ask how big your island is? We have an 8x4.5 island with lighting wired for three pendants. I am considering the benson and harmon pendants from RH - which do you have? I thought benson only came in 7 and then 13 with the 13s also being much taller. Anyway, i was thinking about getting 3 harmon 11" pendants but wasn't sure if they would be too big... I think i want slightly larger than the 7" that the benson has.

My island is 4 x 8 and we went with the kichler large pendants in the polished nickel. I love the polshed!
I think the wider lens diffuses light better. It provides plenty of light to the work area.

aokat15: you're right...it's the harmon. i tried the benson pendants but the sizes weren't right. the 13" looked so big, but the 7" was too small since we're only wired for 2 lights. our island is 9x4.5.

Wow! Some truly beautiful kitchens shown here! jgopp, would you mind posting a picture of your 3 pendants for me? I would love to see the satin pendants.