Pro Tip: Use a balloon on a string hanging from the ceiling to simulate your pendants and hang them at varying heights to get an idea of what works best.
As a central gathering point, a kitchen island can simultaneously be a dining spot, prep station, mixing station, baking cooling station and collector of today’s mail. Highly versatile, these kitchen focal points require highly functional lighting to make the most out of the space… but who says that lighting can’t be gorgeous at the same time? Check out our recommendations for selecting the perfect pendant lighting for your kitchen island…
Wow, there are so many questions when you’re ready to add amazing pendant lighting over your kitchen island. Pendant lights come in gargantuan and tiny sizes (and plenty in between), so what size pendant lights do you put over your island? You don’t want to make the space look crowded or not have enough light, so how many pendant lights do you need over your island? If you’ve got the right number of pendants, how far apart should the pendant lights be over your island? With the spacing right, how high should your pendant lights be hung over your island? Then there are options to consider about how bright the lighting should be and what kind of style will make your kitchen pop. So much to consider – let’s get into it!
Pendant lights that would work for a kitchen island come can be tiny, single bulb lights hanging by a braided black wire, or they can be oversized twisty integrated LED lights designed to impress with their large scale. With such a wide variety of pendant lights available, how do you know what would be the best pendant light for your kitchen island? Take the width of your island (your 7’ kitchen island may be 40” in width) and subtract 12” (40” – 12” = 28” pendant size). Keep in mind that this is a maximum size, if you prefer something a little smaller (or even mini pendants) that’s perfectly acceptable.
Now that you’ve got an idea of the size of the pendant you want to use, how many pendant lights do you need over a 7-foot island? Because different people prefer more or less space between pendants, there’s no hard and fast rule… but we can give you a strong rule of thumb. If your island is less than 6’ long, use two pendants (at the max size figured out above), and if your island is longer than 6’ use three. If your island is close to that 6’ mark, we would suggest selecting smaller pendants and using three to create the perfect task lighting. From an aesthetic viewpoint, the eye finds odd numbers to be pleasing (because there’s one dead center of your island), but selecting 3, 5 or 7 pendants may be impractical with a small island.
As with most things that are decorative in nature, the “proper” placement of pendant lighting over a kitchen island is subjective. If you selected 4” wide mini pendants, you wouldn’t have the same amount of space between them as you would if you selected 22” wide pendants… it’d just look weird. We still love the method of using paper cutouts of the dimensions so that you can get a great idea of the spacing that will work best for you… generally speaking, spacing your pendants between 24” and 36” on center is appropriate, with 30” being ideal. One tried-and-true method of getting the right spacing for two pendants over your island is to measure the whole length of your island and divided by four. The resulting number is where you should center each pendant to give them a symmetrical look. Example: A 110” long island would have this math: 110” / 4 = 27.5”, so measure 27.5” from each end and that’s where the center of your pendants should be.
Now that you’ve got an idea of spacing, let’s figure out how high your pendants should be above your island. The whole point here is to hang your fixtures high enough to provide all the task lighting necessary for all the goings on around your island, yet not at a height that would make your family have to stare into the glare of your light bulbs on a regular basis. When testing out varying heights, for chain-hung fixtures we suggest using a chain connecting link (works like a carabiner but looks like your chain) that stays open so you can experiment with different heights for your fixture. All-in-all, hanging your pendant so the bottom of the pendant is 30”-32” above the island would be appropriate… but make sure you’re measuring from the island to the bottom of the fixture and not from the ceiling to the fixture. From the ground, place the bottom of your pendant about 70”-72” from the floor.
Many of our customers get overly concerned with how bright the fixtures should be (dim for a dinner or bright for better task light) … but there’s a simple and perfect fix for this. Select a lamp/bulb that is the shape you like at the highest brightness that you can get (max 100 watts equivalent per bulb) and install a dimmer switch on the pendants. This way, you can have cozy, warm low light level for a dinner party you’re planning or crank the light up for the semi-annual deep kitchen cleaning you relish so much. Flexibility in lighting is a key, and this can be obtained by layering light and adding dimmers to match your lighting environment to your mood.
Now for the fun part – there are so many sizes, styles and designs of pendant lighting available that you can’t help but find one (or ten) that fit you to a “T.” Remember that for many of us, the kitchen island is the focal point of your kitchen and the lighting above it must pop. They don’t have to EXACTLY match the other lighting around, but the style, curves, finish, and general feeling should be close. Conversely, many of our customers have embraced the strengthening trend of using mixed metals (copper or soft brass above the island, black above the sink, etc.). As you settle on the design and style you want for your island lights, remember that your choice may impact your installation plans. For instance, if you’ve decided on an industrial or minimalist style, these fixtures tend to be significantly thinner than most so that you’ll have to space them closer together. Like all decorative items in your home, each one gives a little clue into your psyche, giving just a little hint on what it is to be “you.” Whether you prefer traditional pendant designs or one of the new concrete designs, make sure that your lighting and your room is as unique as you are.
Selecting the perfect pendant lighting for a 7-foot (or any size) island starts with the vision for the room. Do you need task lighting (down lights) or lighting for the whole room (ambient lights)? Select the style of lighting you’re considering, and based on that style and the sizes of the fixtures make sure they aren’t too big for your island. If you’re good so far, use the paper method to lay out your island and lighting so you can get a clearer idea of how it all goes together. Next, select exactly which lighting would make your kitchen the envy of the neighborhood, and shop our from our large selection of pendant lights. Working through the concepts here will ensure you find the perfect pendant lighting for a 7-foot island.
At 1StopLighting, we’re here for you. It can be a little daunting to select lighting fixtures that will become the focal point of your room… but using the concepts in this article you’ll have the perfect lights for your kitchen island in no time. Need a little more inspiration? There’s a section on our Pendant Lighting that identifies our top three Expert’s Pendant Picks… come check out why these pendants are our absolute favorites.