Having the right pendant light height and spacing over your kitchen island is as important as the style of lighting that you choose. Ever since sharing my favorite kitchen remodel ideas from our recent renovation, I’ve gotten questions almost weekly about the best pendant light height over an island and how far apart to hang pendants.
I decided to put together a quick post sharing the spacing of our kitchen island pendants and tips for getting it right in your own home. I’ve also gathered together some of my favorite kitchen pendants to give those of you planning a kitchen remodel a head start! (post includes affiliate links; disclosure statement available {here})
What’s The Best Pendant Light Height Over an Island?
When hanging pendants over a kitchen island, the distance between the bottom of your pendant lights and your countertop should generally be between 30″-36″:
Kitchen Sources: Lantern pendants | Rattan counter stools in Fog | Pot Filler (vibrant stainless) | Cabinet cup pulls | Other cabinet pulls | Gray geometric rug | Round wood beaded edge tray
Where in that range should you hang your pendants? As a general rule of thumb, if you have 8′ ceilings your pendants will be closer to 30″ while with taller ceilings you may want to hang them a bit higher. You also want to make sure that your lights aren’t blocking your view and that you can see over your counter without them being in your line of sight. You definitely don’t want to have to be dodging around lights to see someone you’re talking to across the room! So ideally, the bottom of your pendant shouldn’t hang lower than the eye height of the tallest person in your house.
This can get tricky if you have super low ceilings like I do or sometimes even with 8′ ceilings. I’ve seen some people say that you shouldn’t use pendants over islands if you have ceilings that are 8′ or less and you should instead stick with recessed lights or semi-flush mount lights. I don’t agree! I feel like that just emphases the fact that you have lower ceilings. It’s actually the pendant light height over the island and the style of pendants that you need to adjust.
My tricks for making pendant lights work in kitchens with low ceilings are to (1) fudge the height measurements a bit and bring your pendants down a little lower (mine are actually hung a bit under 30″) AND (2) use open pendants that you can see through. I have {these pendants} in the 12.5″ size that ended up working beautifully. I feel like you’d never know that my ceilings were unusually low when you’re standing in my kitchen! For a similar look for less, check out {this pendant} and {this pendant}.
How Far Apart Should You Hang Pendant Lights Over an Island?
First I’ll share my own little trick for figuring out how far apart to hang TWO pendant lights over an island. I devised this formula during our kitchen renovation when I had to mark the exact placement of our kitchen pendants when the space was taken down to the studs and there wasn’t yet a single thing (including no kitchen island) to work off of. That’s tough since there’s no option to eyeball it!! Here’s what to do – first measure the length of your kitchen island countertop.
Then divide that number by 4. The number you get is how many inches in from the ends of the island to place the center of your pendants. So for example, my island counters are about 94″ long. I divided that measurement by four: 94 ÷ 4 = 23.5 . Then I centered my pendants 23.5″ in from each end of my kitchen island.
A second option that many use to figure out pendant spacing is to evenly divide the length of your kitchen island by three and hang the two pendants that far in from the end. So for my kitchen island, 94 ÷ 3 = 31.3 so I would hang my pendants about 31″ in from each end. Personally, I don’t like this look as much because it leaves more bare space at the end of the islands and the pendants are a lot closer together in the middle. But much of it boils down to personal preference so there’s no right or wrong answer here as long as make sure your spacing in from both ends is equal.
What if you are hanging three pendants? That’s a little easier – obviously you want to hang one of them in the center of the island. Then space out the two on the ends so that they’re at least 24″ apart. The exact distance apart is going to depend on your island length and size of your pendants but 30-32″ apart works well for most spaces.
How Many Pendants Should I Place Above My Kitchen Island?
I would love to give you a cut and dry works-in-all-situations answer but I’d be doing you a disservice since there are several factors that come into play. The main factor in determining how many pendants to place above your kitchen island is the length of the kitchen island but ceiling height, how much light is needed (you might want more pendants if they’re your primary source of light with no recessed lighting), and the size of your pendants also make a difference.
I will say that I think two pendants is best in the vast majority of kitchens. If your island is on the longer side, usually getting more substantial pendants and sticking with two of them is a better answer than adding a third pendant in my opinion.
My kitchen island is pretty long at close to 8′ and I feel like two pendants was the right choice even with pendants that aren’t super large:
And the people who tell you that you should have one pendant per stool at your island? Ignore that! I think having three stools and two lights is much more interesting. I would have only considered adding a third light over my kitchen if my island was at least another 2-3′ long.
So overall, if your island is 10′ + long, if you want to use smaller pendants, and/or if you need the extra light are the only situations where I’d consider going with three. Again, just sharing my personal preference from my design aesthetic – if you have a smaller island with three pendants and love it, then you did the right thing because the bottom line is that it’s all about what you love and will be happy with in your home.
Favorite Pendants
I searched for a LONG time before deciding on my kitchen pendants and found lots of other beautiful ones along the way. These are some of my favorites:
Sources: 1. Lantern pendant | 2. White cone pendant | 3. Woven bell pendant | 4. Gray paper cone pendant | 5. Scalloped shade pendant | 6. Round woven pendant | 7. Black cone pendant | 8. White cone pendant with brass trim
I hope you found these tips helpful for projects you’re currently working on or those coming down the road (be sure to Pin an image or two if you want to be able to find these tips later)! If you have any questions about sources for anything in our kitchen, I put together a complete Source List at the end of this post. And if you missed any of my previous must-have measurements posts, you can check those out here:
Must-have Measurements for Your Bathroom
Decorating Your Living Room: Must-Have Tips
Decorating Your Dining Room: Must-Have Tips
Hanging Lighting & Choosing The Best Size Light Fixtures
Hope you all have a great start to your week,
Paint color: Benjamin Moore Cloud White (Flat for Walls, Satin for Trim) | Cabinets: See details on my kitchen cabinet design | Appliances: Monogram (more details {here}) | Countertops: Caesarstone’s Statuario Maximus – more details {here} | Flooring: See my Hallmark wood floors review | Backsplash tile: Mosaic behind range: Walker Zanger mosaic (Villa D’ Oro Granada) | Subway tile: AKDO Essential Ceramic in Cloud | Liner around mosaic: AKDO Vista Liner Essential Ceramic in Cloud | Grout Color: See details on our white subway tile with gray grout
See my post on our kitchen remodel before and after for more pics of our kitchen and a complete list of sources!
