My opinion here. Unless you are living in a Model home, who cares what is trendy, or how it looks? Get the style that you want, of course, but for your Island, you will need TASK lighting. Advertisers in every field nowadays are marketing us to be far more concerned with how things look, and not caring at all for (your feet, your posture when you sit, your health, the longevity of the item, it's repair history, or - in your example - Is the light where you need it to be when working??)
Your Island lighting will be there for many years.
The magazines will change in a year, promise.

Ask your Lighting professional what is the correct number of lights to go over your Island.

Our island granite top is 113 x 57. We have three single pendants, spaced 36" apart (center of the base is that distance between each). We have great task lighting on either long-side, and at either end.

Enjoy shopping, and good luck!

This post was edited by wwwonderwhiskers on Fri, Oct 4, 13 at 12:48

Please let me try again--I am still in a quandary and hope rephrasing/revising my question will help garner more opinions. The real problem is not trends--it is more about how to light the entire area because of how close the island is to the dining table--I go back and forth between pendants over the island (2 or 3 will depend on size I suppose) with flush or semi flush over the table to using recessed lights over the island and a larger hanging pendant over the table. The question: is how to coordinate the lighting so one area does not overwhelm the entire area-if that makes sense.

Putting each area on dimmers might help with the overwhelming concern.

I had a view not to block, so I decided to forgo the decorative pendants over my island. I put six 800 lumen CR6 recessed lights in a 9' tray ceiling over a 42" x 91" island. My small
table (36x60) abuts the island, and gets one CR6, on the same dimmer as the island.

Thanks-that may be the way to go. I do not see how people can make lighting decisions before they see how things like the cabinets and countertops fit together. Right now, it is such a mess, I have a hard time visualizing.