Pendant lights have become part of every modern kitchen. The reason is that they offer an excellent balance of aesthetics, appeal, and functionality. However, one thing that confuses people is the placement of pendant lights in the kitchen. This confusion spurs a question: Should pendant lights be centered to kitchen island?
The short answer is YES! I favour placing the pendant in the center above the kitchen island. This way, these lights can offer the brightness required for tasks such as cooking meals and so on. However, the pendant must be at some height to ensure the kitchen island does not look crowded. In this article, I will explain everything about the placement of pendant lights in the kitchen.
Overview of Pendant Lights
Before going into placement, let's first have a birds-eye view of what pendant lights are!
A pendant light is a fixture with a single lamp that hangs from the ceiling through a cord or chain. It is powerful enough to illuminate the spaces. Its unique design and installation system, which utilizes a cord or chain, makes it stand out. It improves both functionality and visual appeal of the space.
What I like about pendant lights is their balance in performance. First, these lights offer excellent brightness and illumination. You can use them in the kitchen or even in drawing rooms. They remain hung with the ceiling, directed downwards. As they are downward directed, most of their brightness comes down to the surface. There is no loss of light.
Secondly, these lights are unique in their design and installation. They are installed or placed on the ceiling using cords or chains. Due to this unique installation, they appear more special and enhance the space's overall look. The modern kitchen has islands in the middle. Right? So, these lights are placed in the center of the ceiling just above the islands.
They offer lights that are useful for kitchen tasks, such as cooking or preparing meals. These pendant lights come in various sizes. Some of those are small and are only for decorative purposes. On the other hand, some medium to larger-sized pendant lights are available. These lights can offer excellent functionality when used in modern kitchens.
Should Pendant Lights Be Centered to Kitchen Island
Yes – pendant lights should be centered on the kitchen islands. The center pendant lights offer excellent brightness at the countertop. The kitchen island looks brighter. As the pendant light is at the top and centered, it prevents shadows when cooks prepare the meals.
There are some cases (exceptions) when you should prevent installing pendant lights in the centers. For example, imagine you have a kitchen with a counter or an island on one side (not in the center). In such a case, your pendant lights should go on the side instead of being centered. If your cooking area is on one side, the center pendant light won't work.
They will direct the lights in the middle of the kitchen. This will result in a darker and less bright cooking area. However, most modern kitchens have counters or islands in the middle. In such a case, the pendant flights should always be centered. They will provide balanced lights on the island and help with tasks like cooking, etc.
In the section below, I give some more logic on how centered pendant lights are more useful and should be preferred:
1- Lighting Performance
As I said earlier, pendant lights offer excellent brightness. In the kitchen, when they are placed above the kitchen island, their light is directly pointed towards the island. The countertop in the kitchen looks more illuminated. The cooking and preparation of food becomes a lot easier.
Centered pendant lights in the kitchen ensure excellent visibility at the island surface. If you place the pendant light on one side, that specific side will be brighter than the other sides. This will also create annoying shadows and dark spots inside the kitchen. The centered pendant lights offer excellent performance, even in larger kitchens.
2- Even Lighting & No Shadows
As I said, the centered pendant lights focus all the lights on the island's surface. Right? This is the surface where cooks work and prepare food. However, the nearby areas also look decently brighter. Remember, the illumination of these nearby areas is mandatory. However, when these nearby areas are more glowing, it feels more welcoming in the kitchen.
You get more task lighting, but nearby lights make the kitchen more balanced. Those nearby even lighting ensures there won't be any dark spots in the kitchen. However, if pendant lights are on the sides, the nearby areas in the kitchen look very dark. There is less even distribution of light inside the kitchen.
3- Aesthetics Appeal & Resale Appeal
Centered pendant lights also improve the aesthetic appeal of the kitchen. As you know, modern and luxury rooms generally have lights in the center of the ceiling. The kitchen, with a centered pendant, gives the vibe of those luxury rooms. The centered pendant lights are generally installed using dedicated chains or cords.
These cords make the lights look more modern and stylish. As you know, lights are expensive, and cannot be changed in their position frequently. So once you place pendant lights in the center, it increases the value of the kitchen. When you sell your home, centered pendant lights in the kitchen make the house look more modern. The new buyers seem willing to pay for homes with such modern lighting.
How to Arrange Pendant Lights in a Kitchen Island?
When arranging pendant lights, you must consider three factors. Those include the number of pendant lights, height, and spacing between the pendant lights. If you consider managing these three factors, you'll end up getting excellent pendant lights set up in your kitchen islands.
1- Number of Pendants
First, you should decide how many pendants you need for your kitchen island. For this, you must consider the size of your island. I recommend using one pendant light for a 3-foot kitchen island. Suppose your kitchen island is 7 feet off the ground; you can have two pendant lights. You can consider the number of lights by measuring the size of your kitchen island.
2- Follow the Height Rule
The next factor you should consider is the ceiling of your kitchen. Suppose you have a kitchen with an 8-foot ceiling. In such a case, you should place pendant lights at least 30–34 inches above the countertop of the kitchen.
This is generally the standard size, and increasing the height of the kitchen can also increase the height of the pendant lights. You can increase the height of the pendant from the countertop up to 3 inches if the ceiling height increases by one foot. For example, you have a kitchen with a ceiling height of 10 feet. In such a case, your pendant should be around 40 inches above the countertop.
3- Spacing Between Pendants
There must be a balanced space between pendants. If you don't keep space, the pendant may look overcrowded, making the space look awful. I recommend that you leave 12 inches from both sides of the kitchen islands.
Additionally, the pendants should be spaced well, around 24 to 28 inches from each other. If your kitchen island is too big, you can install multiple pendants. However, if the kitchen is small, a single pendant will suffice. However, if the kitchen island is too big, you should keep at least 24 inches of space between them.
Conclusion
In short, I favor that pendant lights should be centered on the kitchen island. This ensures that the lights focus on specific areas where cooking happens. Additionally, centered pendant lights also ensure that there are no dark spots or shadows in the kitchen. However, you should ensure that pendant lights are installed at specific heights from the countertop.
The rule of thumb is to place the light at least 30 to 34 inches above the countertop. Additionally, some kitchen islands are bigger in size than others. When installing pendant lights in a bigger kitchen, you should keep space between the pendant lights. These spaces should be at least 24 inches, which will ensure the kitchen space looks more balanced than crowded.
