Spend any amount of time scrolling through Pinterest or Instagram and you are sure to be inundated with endless images of perfectly designed and curated kitchens. These kitchens are typically the result of the expertise of seasoned designers working carefully with conscientious builders and contractors who are willing to do hard things to get the details just right. Unfortunately, the average homeowner typically cannot afford a high end designer for their kitchen remodel or new build and are forced to rely upon the often misguided advice of contractors or to seek out their own answers in the vast and confusing landscape known as the internet.

IRL, my husband and I love to spend a Sunday afternoon driving around our Dallas suburb peeking into new construction homes and the number of confusing design choices that we encounter is astounding. But no design mistake gives me more angst than kitchen island pendant lighting that is all wrong. This is quite literally the heart of the home and so many builders are, I hope unknowingly, installing lights that are too short for the very high ceilings, too small for the very large island, or too far apart to maintain continuity with each other!

Let’s take a look at a few examples of kitchen lighting tragedies.

I present to you Exhibit A:

I just cannot understand what builder in their right mind would install lights this far above a kitchen island. The very high ceilings in this kitchen present a challenging design dilemma, and in the perfect world of a new home build, the ceilings should really be between 10 feet to no more than 12 feet high. This creates a cozier atmosphere and it avoids the dead space between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling and it makes the choice of island pendants so much easier! But, if these very high ceilings are unavoidable in a home, it is imperative that pendant lighting be appropriately scaled in the space and that the chain extends to allow the bottom of the pendant to hang 30-36 inches above the island countertop.

Exhibit B:

This kitchen has great potential, but these pendants are hung too high and too far apart and they are entirely too small for the vaulted ceiling.

Exhibit C:

The lower ceilings in this kitchen make the choice of lighting more manageable, but somehow this builder still chose lights that are too small and installed them with too much dead space between the fixtures. The number and size of pendants will vary based upon the size of the island, but as a rule of thumb, the fixtures should never be hung more than 36 inches apart. In this particular kitchen the builder should have chosen two wider pendants or installed three pendants with this narrow cylindrical shape.

Good Pendant Lighting Looks Like This:

In my own home, my kitchen ceilings measure 12 feet, which made the choice of pendants above the kitchen island a tricky one. These lanterns are massive, clocking in at 42″ high and 29″ wide and they were quite a feat to hang! But the large scale is necessary to balance the height of the ceiling and the size of the island.

And This:

In this design by Ashley Montgomery, the ceilings are vaulted but she utilizes the space by adding beams and taking the range hood and cabinetry almost to the ceiling. She finished the space with two perfectly scaled pendants with chains that extend long enough to place the fixture height at the perfect distance from the top of the island.

Or This:

The kitchen ceiling disappears behind the lower ceiling in this shot, but you can tell that it is vaulted and that the island pendants have been hung from chains that allowed the fixtures to hang at the perfect height above the island.

There are many variables to take into account when choosing pendants to install above an island, such as the size of the island, the height of the ceiling and the size of the fixtures. If you are needing more detailed guidance on choosing fixtures for your own home, here are a couple of my favorite resources for information:

Our Guide To Hanging Lights

Pendant Light Height Over Your Island + Spacing Tips!