Trending kitchen pendant lighting ideas for a modern farmhouse kitchen and dining room. Looking for stunning kitchen island lights? Read on . . .
Good lighting can completely change the look and feel of an entire room. I've been looking for glass pendant lights for our kitchen and dining area and have found some real stunners along the way. Today, I'm sharing some of my favorite kitchen pendant lighting ideas for a modern farmhouse kitchen and dining room. If you're looking for stylish pendant lights, you're definitely in the right place.
Light up the heart of your home
The kitchen is the heart of the home and the place where memories are made. Whether cooking, entertaining, crafting or helping the kids with their homework, the kitchen is where it all happens. You could say the kitchen is the center of the family universe!
The lighting choices you make for the kitchen will depend upon how you use the space. It's important to choose the right type of light for each work area.
Table of contents
- Light up the heart of your home
- Kitchen pendant lighting ideas
- Kitchen light fixtures
- Kitchen task lights
- Kitchen Island lighting
- Kitchen ceiling lights
- Kitchen pendant ideas
- How to space kitchen pendant lights
- Glass pendants
- Accent lighting
- Dining area lighting
- My favorite kitchen pendant lighting ideas
- Sources
- Our favorite glass pendant light
- Recyling our pendant lights
- Shop the post
- Conclusion
- These posts are good too!
Kitchen pendant lighting ideas
Recently, I've been looking at kitchen pendant lighting ideas for our kitchen and dining room table.
The old lighting over the kitchen table was dated and in desperate need of an update. The light it gave off was subdued because it had an opaque glass shade giving the room deep shadows in the evening.
The pendants over the dining table still look great, it's just that our home style has evolved so they no longer suit the room.
Before I show you my favorite kitchen pendant lighting ideas, let's take a look at a typical kitchen layout and the types of lighting fixture needed in each space.
Look for the light sources listed under each image.
Kitchen light fixtures
If you are designing your kitchen from scratch, it's a great opportunity to create a lighting scheme that incorporates, functional, ambient, and accent lighting for a balanced look. If you are lucky enough to have an interior designer on board, that's fantastic but if not, don't worry, I'm here to help!
There are so many different styles of kitchen light fixtures out there, how do you choose what's right for you? The best kitchen lighting ideas for a large open plan kitchen may not be the same as those for a small kitchen.
Then, there's the question of price. Some of the pendants I found were high-end and way out of my price range. Thankfully, for the most part, I was able to find an alternative, budget-friendly option in a similar style.
Kitchen task lights
It's always a good idea to take a minute to think about how you use your kitchen space. Where do you do most of your kitchen tasks? If you mainly use your work surfaces for specific tasks then consider fitting flush mount lights underneath your kitchen cabinets. We have them and I can tell you that they are fantastic.
A wall-mounted task light will illuminate your everyday tasks but is also a great addition to a small breakfast nook.
If you like to read or work from home, a wall light will help illuminate your working area.
TIP: Wall lights will enable you to direct light to a specific area.
Kitchen Island lighting
Kitchen islands are a very popular addition to the kitchen. If you have the space for one, a central island with the right lighting is a great way of creating a beautiful focal point in your kitchen.
Interior designers will tell you that if you are installing kitchen pendants over a large island, it's important to choose the correct number of pendants, to create a balanced look.
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Sources
Kitchen ceiling lights
If you have high ceilings, then ceiling lights probably won't be an option for you but they are a great lighting option for low ceilings. We have recessed ceiling lights in the kitchen which create a nice bright light over our work surfaces and over the sink.
Kitchen pendant ideas
When it comes to modern kitchen lighting ideas, kitchen pendants are a popular choice.
Stylish pendant lights take center stage in a dining area, over the kitchen table, or over a kitchen island. You can even get mini pendants for small rooms or for places like over the kitchen sink.
These days there is a pendant design for every type of interior design style, from an industrial look to classic to farmhouse style to dramatic chandeliers and more.
Source
Very popular single bell pendant light - hammered glass and brass
How to space kitchen pendant lights
Spacing one pendant
If you are hanging one pendant light, you should place it in the center of the island, or dining table.
Spacing two pendants
The general rule for spacing two or more pendant lights is that you should space them at least the same distance as the lights or lampshades are wide.
Spacing three or more pendants
If you have a large island and are hanging a row of pendant lights across the length of the island, start by hanging the first pendant light in the middle of the island. Space the remaining pendant lights equally across the island.
PRO TIP: A good rule of thumb when hanging two or more pendants is to leave a few inches between the edge of the island and the last pendant light. No one wants to be hit by a light fixture every time they walk past the island!
How high should pendant lights be over a kitchen island?
Officially, the bottom of the pendant light should hang around between 76cm and 80cm/30-31.5 inches over a tabletop or kitchen island. I measured our old pendants before we removed them and they were 76cm above the table.
In all transparency, we don't measure, we just eyeball it. One of us holds the light fixture up and one of us sits at the table (usually the tallest person). Then we mutually decide that “Yup, that's a great place” and up it goes haha! I appreciate that not everyone is as random as we are when it comes to DIY that's why I've included the official version as well! 🙂
Glass pendants
There are so many pendant lighting designs to choose from.
I've been looking at pendants with glass shades simply because I feel they project more light and look best in our small space.
The transparent nature of glass pendant lights means that they tend to make a room look bigger because you can see through them to what is beyond. Glass pendants are a great choice for smaller rooms.
As a finishing touch, you can use attractive light bulbs which can be seen through the clear glass of the pendant shade.
Source
Accent lighting
Accent lighting is an important element of kitchen design. If you have kitchen cabinets with clear glass doors, installing cabinet lighting is an easy way to create accent lighting.
We have cabinet lights that light up the work surface and inside the kitchen cabinet at the same time.
We love to leave our cabinet lights on in the evenings because they create a lovely soft warm light in the kitchen. Of course, we use energy-efficient bulbs.
Dining area lighting
We looked at various kitchen pendant lighting ideas for over the kitchen table but kept coming back to glass pendants.
Glass pendants create such a beautiful light. We have great natural light in the kitchen during the day so we didn't want to get a pendant light with a highly reflective finish.
Since our dining area and living room are one open space, the new pendant lights would need to blend in with the decor throughout the entire area. We already have overhead recessed spotlights in the ceilings in both rooms which creates great ambient lighting whenever we need it.
Sources
- Large glass pendant (top)
- Glass pendant ceiling light (Middle left)
- Polished chrome and glass pendant light (bottom left) - UK
- Black Transitional Clear Glass Bell Mini Pendant Light (Compatible with dimable light bulbs and can be used on sloaped ceilings)
There is a gallery wall directly behind our dining table and the old pendant lamps always blocked the view of that. With new glass pendants, the gallery wall won't be obscured anymore.
For a modern touch, you could also use linear pendants or a linear chandelier over the dining table too.
Linear pendants consist of a group of pendants joined together to form one light fixture.
The area over the dining table is a great place to hang linear pendants.
My favorite kitchen pendant lighting ideas
After spending hours and hours researching the best kitchen pendants for our kitchen table and dining table, we came up with the following list of must-haves for our lighting fixture:
Light sources needed
- One pendant over the kitchen table.
- Two identical pendants over the dining table.
Lighting designs
- The pendant shade should be clear glass.
- Pendant hardware should be black.
We found so many beautiful lighting options. Here are just a few more ideas:
Sources
- Glass pendant (top left)
- Adjustable glass pendant light (Top right)
- Single teardrop pendant light (Bottom)
Our favorite glass pendant light
With all these gorgeous kitchen pendant lighting ideas to choose from it was hard to make a decision on which lamps to buy for over the dining table.
In the end, we opted for glass balloon style pendant lights with black metal fixtures and a hanging chain. The pendants fit in well with our modern rustic farmhouse style.
The pendants haven't been installed yet but we hope to get that done this weekend. I'll be sure to post a photo my Instagram feed once they're up.
UPDATE: The pendant lights have been installed. In this Instagram reel, you can see how easily they went up.
Recyling our pendant lights
The old pendant lights will be put up for sale on ebay. Ebay is one of my favorite platforms for buying and selling second hand items.
Shop the post
It depends upon the type of pendant light you buy as to which light bulbs would be compatible. If you are buying online, the correct type of light bulb you need will be stated in the product description.
Some pendants also have the option to use dimmable Bulbs.
Conclusion
If you are looking for kitchen pendant lighting ideas, I highly recommend that you take a look at clear glass pendants. I couldn't be happier with the new glass pendant lights we chose for the kitchen and dining table.
Great lighting goes a long way to making the kitchen the heart of your home! Choose pendants that are in keeping with the style of your home.
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Janet says
Wow, Jayne. So much good information. I can’t wait to see your new lights.
Jayne Westerholt says
Thanks so much, Janet! The new pendant lights look really lovely. I hope we can get them up this weekend.
Carol Karl | Living a Real Life says
These are all wonderful! I love them all. I find lighting the hardest thing about decorating. I seem to dream up this wonderful thing that doesn't exist and then get disappointed if I can't find it, or I can find it but only overseas.
Jayne Westerholt says
I know exactly what you mean, Carol! I've been looking for glass pendant lights for ages so I was thrilled to finally find these!