How to choose the right pendants for your kitchen.
- Joe
- Nov 2
- 3 min read
When it comes to Kitchen lighting design, fewer choices make a bigger impact than the pendants. They’re functional, stylish and instantly elevate the heart of your home. The right pendants can bring warmth and character to your space - whether it's a sleek modern kitchen or a cosy shaker-style design.
Making a statement with your pendants
Your kitchen pendants can do more than just light the room, they can also steal the show. Take this as an opportunity to create a statement piece with personality and design flair.
If you're looking for some inspiration on how to make a statement with your pendants, here are some examples to start with. We think these would look great over a kitchen island or even a dining table!
Bar pendants or single pendants?
When choosing lighting for over a kitchen island, one of the biggest questions we get asked is whether to go for a bar pendant, or whether to opt for a series of single pendants instead.
Each option has their pros and cons, however depending on your kitchen shape and style, one option may be better than the other. This is something we are more than happy to advise on.
Bar pendants
When it comes to bar pendants, some key considerations are:
more limited choices of styles;
simpler to install as it only requires one wiring point; and
often can be short, so are better suited to smaller kitchens.
Single pendants
In comparison, some of the key points to be aware of when choosing single pendants are:
ability to adjust the separation of the pendants to suit the space;
able to have as many pendants as necessary;
requires more complex wiring arrangements;
greater selection of single pendants available.
When opting for single pentants, spacing is key. We recommend spacing pendants approximately 65-75cm from the ends of the island, with each pendant also being separated by between 30-50cm, depending on the size of the pendants.
If you are struggling to work out spacing, then speak with our lighting designers, as they will be able to assist with this.
Downlights
When combining both downlights and pendants in a kitchen, it's vital to ensure that you do not place downlights directly above where the pendants fall, as this would create an unwanted shadow on your workspaces.
Instead, we recommend focusing the downlights on the key task areas (providing you ensure the pendants will provide ample lighting - which we can help you with!)
When placing these downlights, they should be positioned in line with the edge of the worktop, to prevent shadows being cast onto the work space.
How we can help?
We've got plenty more advise to offer, and the kitchen is one of the most important rooms to get right in terms of lighting, and that's where we can get involved.
If you are struggling to understand what would work for your kitchen, then we can assist with the following (which is just a handful of the services we offer):
Advice on the styles of lighting that would suit your kitchen;
helping with providing a downlight and pendant plan for your kitchen (available virtually too);
full lighting design advice including recommendations for products and styles; and
full electrical installation work on top of our design assistance, brought to you by our NICEIC certified electrical contractors.
