We just finished our kitchen makeover and of all the design choices we made, the kitchen pendants were probably the hardest of all! So today I wanted to show you how to choose the best kitchen island pendants for your kitchen!
Whether you are renovating your kitchen or just updating your pendants you may be asking yourself the following:
- What Pendant Design Would Go Best With My Kitchen Style?
- How Many Pendants Should I Get?
- What Size Pendants Should I Get?
- How Low Or Far Apart Should I Hang My Pendants?
These are all valid questions and I want to touch on all of them! Let’s get right into these!
WHAT PENDANT DESIGN WOULD GO BEST WITH MY KITCHEN STYLE?
Let’s first talk about the right pendant design for your kitchen.
For example, do you want sleek lines or rounded pendants? Do you want glass pendants or a pop of color?
SLEEK LINES VS ROUNDED
The shape of your pendants depends on personal preference. But you should consider your other kitchen shapes.
For example, if you have a lot of sleek lines already in your kitchen design, such as cabinets, backsplash, and hardware, then you might want to break it up a bit with some rounded pendants.
And vice versa, if you have more rounded or interesting shapes in your kitchen design, such as your backsplash tile, then picking pendants with sleek lines could complement these.
GLASS VS SOLID COLOR PENDANTS
The material or color of your pendants (in this case, glass vs solid color pendants) depends on what you want to stand out more in your kitchen.
If your kitchen has colorful cabinets and/or backsplash, then you might want that to be the focal point of the kitchen. Therefore, glass pendants would let you sort of “see-through” them without breaking eye contact with the focal point.
Regardless, you also want your kitchen island pendants to stand out one way or another. So even if you choose glass pendants, choose LARGE glass pendants like this one that will still make a statement without deterring the eye from other kitchen components!
But if you have a classic white kitchen then you might want to add a pop of color with your pendants!
If you do decide on a color, you might be wondering what color you should pick.
You could match your kitchen island pendants to your hardware. Such as the knobs and pulls, faucet, pot filler, etc.
Or if you have a different color island than the rest of your kitchen cabinets you could match it to the island color!
Doing so would anchor the entire kitchen island and become a focal point of its own!
And if you can’t decide between glass or solid, get a “bird caged” pendant!
This way you get the best of both worlds! You can still see through the pendant, and it also still adds a pop of color!
PRO-TIP
In the end, remember that these are just suggestions and not rules set in stone. So if you just love a dome pendant or a teardrop pendant, get it! It will look good no matter what!
And if you don’t know what you like yet, look through pictures of kitchens and see which ones you gravitate towards. Then see if there’s any recurring pattern in the kitchen island pendants, if there is, most likely that’s your top pick!
HOW MANY PENDANTS SHOULD I GET?
How many pendants you get depends on the size of your kitchen island.
In fact, the size, amount, and distance of your kitchen island pendants are all closely intertwined. And they are all somewhat dependent on the size of the island.
Overall, I would say that 2 pendants are ideal for almost all kitchen islands. Because nowadays LARGE pendants are in! So two large pendants can make a big statement on an island.
Depending on the size of the kitchen island you can decide the size of those pendants. I will go into further detail on this later.
If your kitchen island is larger than 8 feet long, then I would recommend 3 pendants. Two pendants would have to be extremely large which might call negative attention to the space.
I also wouldn’t recommend too many pendants. Four or more can be too much, plus they would have to be smaller in order to fit the space. It’s better to have fewer yet larger pendants than many small pendants.
As always, less is more!
WHAT SIZE PENDANTS SHOULD I GET?
As previously mentioned, the size of your pendants largely depends on the size of your island. This is because you want to make sure they look proportional to the island.
For example, you don’t want extra large pendants (15″ or wider) on a small island. You also don’t want tiny pendants (6″ – 8″ wide) on an extra-large kitchen island.
Now I’m not going to give you a super-secret formula to figure out. I’m just going to give it to you straight, based on my research, and my own opinion.
Below are a few suggestions for the size of your pendants depending on the size of the island.
On the chart below you will see what size pendants you should get depending on your kitchen island and how many pendants you get!
This is based on certain rules of placement for your kitchen island pendants that I will discuss in a minute.
But there is one rule which affects the size of your pendant, more specifically the height of the pendant.
The rule is that the bottom of the pendant should be between 66-72″ from the floor or 30-36″ from the countertop. What does this have to do with the height of the pendant? Well, it’s actually more the height of your ceiling which many people don’t take into consideration.
If your ceilings are only 8 feet tall (that’s 96″) you only have about 2 feet of space for your pendant. Which is not ideal because if the pendant itself is 12″ tall, then you only have 12″ inches of chain hanging. This is just not aesthetically or visually appealing. In fact, it may draw even more attention to the fact that your ceiling is low.
The bigger the pendant the shorter the chain or pole that holds that pendant will be so that it keeps the rule 30-36″ from the counters (66-72″ from the floor). So if you have low ceilings you might have to get smaller pendants for your kitchen island.
And vice versa, if your ceilings are high then small pendants would show a long chain. So I would opt for a larger pendant.
HOW LOW AND FAR APART SHOULD I HANG MY PENDANTS?
So there are a couple of “rules” to go by when deciding where to place your pendants. But honestly, I see these constantly being broken. I used them as an overall guide in deciding the placement of my pendants but I broke a rule or two myself!
The basic rules are as follows:
- Hang your pendants 30-36″ from the top of the countertop (between 66″-72″ from the floor).
- Place your pendants 10-12″ from the ends of the kitchen island
- Space them apart the length of twice the size of the pendant/chandelier. So if your pendant is 13″ wide then place the, 26″ apart.
Below is a drawing to help you visualize these rules a bit better.
I have a 10-foot island. And my kitchen island pendants are 13″ wide. So according to these facts and these rules, we did some math to figure out the spacing required.
The MATH of my pendant size should be as follows:
Space the pendants take up: 13″ x 3= 39″
Space at the ends: 12″ + 12″ = 24″
39″ + 24″ = 63″
A 10′ island is 120″.
120″ – 63″ of space taken leaves me with 57″.
57″ divided by 2 for the spaces in between the pendants is 28.5″
This means that my pendants should be spaced 28.5 inches apart. This is a bit more than double the size of the pendants (26″) but it’s close enough. Again is this based on a 10 ft island and 13″ pendants.
I would take these “rules” as mere GUIDELINES. At the end of the day, you should place your pendants where you like them best! Trust your designer eye!
Now here is how I ACTUALLY spaced my pendants.
Our pendants are about 36″ from the countertop because we have high ceilings.
The pendants are 17.5 inches from the edge of the kitchen island instead of 12″. And the spacing in between them is 35.5″ from the center pole of each pendant and 22.5″ from the bottom edge of the pendants themselves.
As you can see the only rule I kept was the height placement at 36″ from the countertop. But I’ve even seen some others break this rule when they have a lower ceiling height of 8′. And you know what! It’s Okay!
Conclusion:
If you wanted a foolproof formula for what pendants you should get for your kitchen island then you’ve probably realized by now that I don’t have one for you. And that’s simply because there is none!
Well let me reiterate there are formulas out there but you shouldn’t think of them as set in stone.
So how do you decide which pendants are best for your kitchen if everything is intertwined? The size of the pendants is based on the amount of pendants, which is based on the size of your island.
It’s almost a question of what came first, the chicken or the egg? Each one leads you back to the other.
My advice is to just pick one that is big enough for your island (based on the chart previously shown above) and go from there. Do “the math”. See if it “fits”. But ultimately I would say get pendants that you absolutely LOVE!
PIN IT FOR LATER – How To Pick Your Kitchen Island Pendants
Was this post helpful in your kitchen island pendant journey? Let me know in the comments below! I would love to hear from you!
If you would like to receive more kitchen design tips stay tuned! I have another blog coming next week on my 8 Kitchen Design Must-Haves! Subscribe to my newsletter to get these tips and more straight to your inbox!
You May Also Like
Leave A Comment