Efiwym, my wife, and I were discouraged that the pendant light we really, really liked was not available. Before we went home, we stopped at a couple more big box home improvement stores. We looked at their limited supply of pendant and overhead lights. We decided to go home, but first we needed to get supper.
We spend most of our evening searching online for something similar. She would show me one on her phone and I would show her one from mine. We each said to each other, ‘that’s nice,” and kept looking.
I stopped looking for a while to measure out the location of the pendant lights over the peninsula. The spacing was critical so the upper cabinet door would not hit one of the pendant lights. That door was about 16 inches wide. With the depth of the cabinet plus the width of the light shade, we needed to be approximately 21 inches from the upper cabinet. I put a pencil mark on the location and measured 21 inches from the end of the peninsula. That left about 18 inches between the lights to center them on the peninsula.
I also marked both locations of the pendant lights at 18-3/4 inches from the end of the countertop, so the lights would be centered on the peninsula with the 12-inch overhang. I asked Efiwym to come into the kitchen so I could show her the layout of the pendant lights.
Remember, this is HER kitchen. She wanted full say on the design. And again, I am fine with that. I demonstrated the location of the lights by lifting up two tall plastic cups to the approximate height, (about 30 inches) and at the marked location. At first, she asked if they were going to be that high. I told her the recommended range was 30-36 inches, and I was at the 30-inch height. She did not seem concerned about the spacing, But I was. I wanted the lights to be spaced out equally at 20 inches apart and centered on the peninsula. She was adamant that she did not want the cabinet door to hit the light.
Suddenly, she threw me a curveball. She said she did not like two pendant lights hanging down from the ceiling. She said the installation would be harder. (No, it would not.) And two, she preferred a fixture with one rod with a row of two or three lights hanging from one horizontal bracket. The fixture would be centered on the peninsula and using only one ceiling box.
I told her I was okay with that, but again, the lights cannot be too wide apart and the cabinet door not hitting one of the lights. So, our search would continue. But before we were done discussing the location of the lights, Efiwym wanted to know where the lights would be positioned across the peninsula. I told her that I would center them over the countertop including the overhang at about 18-3/4 inches. Well, she did not like that. “I don’t think it would look right,” she replied. “They should be centered on the upper cabinet,” she added. I showed her the location with the plastic cups, and she agreed that was not right either, but maybe centered on the peninsula without the overhang, about 12-3/4”. She then asked, “What is recommended?” “I do not think there is a recommendation,” I replied back. “Just a preference,” I concluded. She apparently was not happy with my answer, so we went back to searching for pendant lights on our phone.
The search continued for these allusive pendant lights. Efiwym realized that two pendants were the best solution, but the cabinet door cannot hit the pendant. We shared photos of pendants we might discover as we searched on the Internet, and we found one that we both liked at the place with the friendly hardware folks. The store was about 20 miles away and had 2 pendants available. We talked about visiting the store some weekend.
One weekend while at the store where you save 11% on everything, Efiwym happened to find two pendant lights in clearance. They were oil-rubbed bronze, but with a white glass shade. They were so inexpensive, Efiwym suggested that we buy separate shades that would match our other kitchen/dinette light fixtures. We found 2 shades that closely matched. I asked her if she was sure these were the lights she wanted. And her reply was, “Are YOU sure?” I was getting what I originally wanted, so I told her, “Yes. let’s check out”
When we got home, I put them together with the new shades. I put them up against the ceiling to display them to Efiwym. She told me they looked good, as long as the cabinet door does not hit the pendant. “It will not,” I assured her.