Kitchen island lighting - am I overthinking this?!

[MrsKipling16]

Hi everyone,

I'm still at the planning stage but will need to start making decisions soon. The island will be rectangular, with curved edges as per the 1st photo (this will match the curved edges of my wall and floor units) and I'm agonising with myself over the shape of the pendant lights that will be above the island!

I really like cube style pendants (either as one fitting, or 3 individual fittings as per the 2nd & 3rd photos) but am worrying if they are too "square" given the round edges of my island and cupboards?

What does mumsnet think - would they look as fabulous as I think they might, or are they a no-no?

Ignore the style of both kitchen and light fitting, these are just example google images. Island will be dark blue, shaker style and lights more than likely chrome or nickel well, that's what I'm thinking today at least.

Thanks in advance for your opinions

Just wanted to say we have a curved island on a shaker style kitchen.

Cant help with lighting as we went for pewter pendants. Also agonised over the decision so best of luck!

Thanks Eminado - glad to know someone else has a curve edged shaker island! Are your pewter pendants round?

We have curved wall and base units and an L shaped island with curved ends. We don't have pendant lighting over the island at all because of the ceiling shape. We have echoed the curves elsewhere though, with curved glass wall lights and other bits and pieces. Everything works together well. I'd have had these over the island - I think they are lovely. John Lewis and other stockists sell them.

Tbh I don't think the curved island and boxed in lights really match. But it's a new kitchen, it's going to look fab and shiny and clean and new no matter what! So just choose lights that please you.

And they need to be bright enough too. Compare the lumens!

I really wouldn't worry about the curves vs square I don't think it matters. Pendants add a really nice feature to the kitchen so just choose a style that you like that compliments the kitchen & enjoy it =)

Hi OP yes i got these 👇🏼

Thanks everyone for your thoughts/ideas/suggestions - so many choices out there!

wowfudge thanks for the suggestion. I like this, but not sure it will go with my other ideas for the rest of the space.

Eminado thanks for sharing a picture of your lights - I like it and is a similar style to my plan B.

I'm sure I'll regret saying this once there's dust everywhere, but I can't wait for work to start!

I think any Tom Dixon look alikes would be great. I love the blown glass ones. The open ones you like might be difficult to keep clean in a kitchen.

I think pendants over an island can be stunning in the right place, but very, very annoying in the wrong one. What you don't want to do is to ruin a lovely open plan layout by putting a curtain of elaborate lights that cuts off space again (MIL has made this mistake). Any pendant needs to work really hard to justify its place - in the visualised kitchen you've posted, for me, the chandelier is fussy and doesn't work, so I think your idea of something more straightforward is a good one. I would go for 3 individual lights so you can space them right out without a long track. You can get some absolutely gorgeous glass pendants, which are lovely - a teardrop shape could work.

We got our lights from IKEA and we are very pleased with them.

I have a lovely glass pendant a bit like the one whiskyowl linked to in my lounge. It looked lovely in the box. Then the electrician put it up and got finger prints all over it. Managed to get those off (standing on a ladder/high ceilings) and now it’s just dusty all the time - trying to clean glass pendants in situ is a pain. So I would think carefully about having beautifully crystal clear lights in your kitchen which if anything like mine is the most used room in the house.
(Think humidity, grease, dust, crystal clear lights....)