How many lamps should you hang above a kitchen island?
A kitchen island is usually the centre of the kitchen, and therefore the place where poorly chosen lighting shows most. Too little light and you are chopping in your own shadow. Too much, or badly distributed, and it looks like a canteen.
Two or three?
The answer depends on the length. For an island up to about 1.80 metres, two pendant lamps are enough. Between 1.80 and 2.60 metres, three work best. Above 2.60 metres you can go to four, or choose one long bar.
Prefer an odd number if the island is visible from the living room. Three lamps look calmer than four, because the eye finds a centre.
How do you space them?
Do not space them from the edges but from the middle. Divide the length of the top by the number of lamps, and hang each lamp in the middle of its own section. With three lamps above a 2.40 metre island, that gives eighty centimetres between each centre.
Keep at least thirty centimetres from the edges of the top, otherwise they seem to hang off it.
At what height?
Allow 70 to 85 centimetres between the top and the bottom of the lamp. That is slightly higher than above a dining table, because you stand at an island rather than sit. Different measurements apply to the dining table; they are in what size lamp above your dining table.
If you often cook with two people on either side, hang them at the higher end, otherwise you cannot see each other.
Do not forget task lighting
Pendant lamps above an island create atmosphere, but rarely enough light to chop by. Combine them with lighting under the wall cabinets or recessed spots above the worktop. Then you have functional light during the day and atmosphere in the evening, switched separately.
How much light you need at a workspace is in how many lumens you need per room. Keep the colour temperature of your spots and pendant lamps the same; why that matters is in warm white, neutral or daylight.
A practical tip
Before you drill, mark the positions with tape on the top and look at it for an evening. What is right on paper sometimes feels slightly different in the room. We are happy to help. Send us the dimensions of your island and we will work it out for you.
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