Kitchen Pendant Lighting

Why haven't more homeowners embraced kitchen pendant lights? If you're reading this article, you probably already have an inkling of how great kitchen pendant lighting is and how it can help you see better, cook better, and do all of the above more safely.

Kitchen pendant lights do three things quite well:

• They bring lights down to head level or just above head level.
• They avoid the dreaded "light is everywhere, but nowhere in particular" illumination of flush mount ceiling lights.
• They spotlight specific cooking areas.

Kitchen pendant lights aren't the best for general kitchen lighting. But I say: Who needs 'em for that? You can easily cover the room with your existing ceiling lights (flush-mount, recessed, or other), combining the two for perfect all-over room lighting.

Or, if you don't feel like you need blazing, TV studio-quality lights everywhere within your kitchen, pendant lights do provide a nice soft type of illumination that adds real character to your kitchen.

Tip: See Kitchen Pendant Pictures

Need suggestions for how kitchen pendant lights function in different areas of your kitchen? Check out our gallery of kitchen pendants.

What You Need to Know about Kitchen Pendant Lighting

Kitchen pendant lights are so vastly different from other types of lights that you might want to learn a few basics about them.

1. When shopping, you won’t find any special category of pendants made just for the kitchen. Pendant lights for the kitchen are simply the same pendants you might use in other parts of the house. What it comes down to is the styles and sizes you want, or can tolerate, in your kitchen. For example, a fabric shade for your pendants might look great in the office—but how about in the kitchen next to the stove?
2. Kitchen pendants can be installed in existing ceiling fixture boxes. That’s the good news. If you have or want a kitchen island, you’ll very easily be able to replace the icky flush mount fixture with a cool pendant light fixture.
3. The bad news is that you might also want pendant lights around the kitchen perimeter—above the counters. Because those flush-mount fixtures tend to be in the centers of rooms, you’re out of luck there. But maybe you have some recessed lights around the perimeter you can replace? Consult an electrician for this task.
4. Track lighting can provide an excellent base for your pendants. Pendant fixtures are available which can dangle from the tracks…and which you can move, add, or remove as needed. Pretty cool. Some homeowners, though, hate the look of tracks on their ceiling; this is a personal choice.
5. Really the only instance of an “easy” DIY installation for kitchen pendant lighting is the one-for-one replacement of a single flush mount fixture. In all other instances, you should call in an electrician. Why? Because in the case of recessed lights, you’re dealing with a long string of lights all connected (maybe 6 or 7 can lights in a row). An electrician is the best person to advise you on this type of replacement.