lights for kitchen with lowish ceiling

[siftingflour]

any advice.
need to think about putting in lights for new kitchen
the architects are suggesting recessed lights
i hate recessed lights - i like pools of light (I have ugly small spotlights at the moment).
but i can't have long dangly lights as the ceiling really isn't very high.
do you have any suggestions.

You do not have much choice. You could have general lighting provided by downlighters and task lighting by mounting lights under wall cupboards. Have you checked out lighting design contractors to see examples of lighting?

I'm with you on recessed lights OP. In our kitchen we removed a wall and the darkest part of the kitchen has fire rated LED recessed lights and we are going to put LED strips under the wall units. It was the most sensible combination. The recessed lights can be angled - they came with two different bevels so you can choose to angle one or two if you want or have the all fixed.

Look at LED panels. These won't give pools of light, but they do give a nice diffuse and unobtrusive brightness.

I have track lighting. It doesn't take up much space hanging down but it gives nice directed pools of light and personally I much prefer to recessed spots. Worth considering.

We had the same problem and ended up knotting silicone lights. I'm pleased with it. We can also let them down long if we want it more intimate, although the number of preschoolers means that won't happen for some time.

A flat/flush low energy light like a powerful bathroom light will give a good general lighting then you can have a few spotlights or under cabinet lights to kill shadows.