Oh, I need help with this. I have a cieling fan with lights plus these under-cabinet flourescents over my stove and sink. I love having the under-cabinet light but hate the flourescents.

I thought I hated my huge overhead fluorescent, until it went out a couple of weeks ago... Now it's so dark in my kitchen, which barely gets any natural light!

Headed to the ReStore tomorrow to see if I can find a replacement. In the meantime, the breakfast table overhead, the hood light and a lamp I borrowed from the guest room will have to suffice.

We have two sets of double windows on two walls. In terms of light fixtures: there is the main (schoolhouse style--ceiling hung) light over the middle of the room, a light (wall hung) over the sink area, a light (wall hung) over the stove area, and a small lamp on the back counter. We have no overhead cabinets (except the original 1929 cabinets on the back wall that frame one of the sets of windows) so don't have to worry about lighting over the workspaces being blocked. It is by far the best kitchen in terms of lighting (and everything else for that matter) we've ever had.

I have 6' bay windows in the breakfast area and a cute little half moon window in the kitchen. My house gets a ton of natural light.

The actual lighting is hideous though. A big 80s fluorescent box over the kitchen and an outdated looking fan over the breakfast area. Some day I will knock out that box and put in cans or modern track lighting.

I need help with this too. I rent an apartment and I've got a galley-style kitchen, though one wall is a breakfast bar facing into my dining room/office (the end walls are my laundry room and bathroom). The dining room/office has french doors, but due to the height of the breakfast bar, anything on the counters is in some form of shadow. I have an overhead dual pendant situated in the middle of the room and a standard over the stove light from the microwave. Any suggestions on getting light into the kitchen to cook by, especially as I work late.

I have a bay window that lets in a lot of natural light, under cabinet lighting and a flourescent light over the island (which is getting replaced with a lighted pot rack)

We have the recessed can lights but they are actually set in just about the right places so that they light up what's inside the upper cupboards and a fair amount of the counters. My mother's very old kitchen has one small light fixture in the center and one above the sink so anyone working at a counter casts a shadow right on the work area. There's not much she can do about it though because the landlord has been pretty cranky about any requested changes.

Big, white, impossible-to-replace-for-mere-renter fluorescent lozenge on the ceiling. It's bright enough, all right, but it doesn't make an already ugly galley kitchen with super-outdated, not-even-original everything any prettier.

I guess we are in a different situation here. We are awake just before light, and we have our last meal just at dark. We live in the jungle, and while we have electricity (and running water) we do not need lights at any time (we do have lights, and, you might surmise, we do have an internet connection), we do not use it in our kitchen. In fact, our kitchen is outside, under a large roof (average 82F here year round) which also includes our living room. We do have lights should the occasion arise (hasn't yet). Our 2 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms and a sitting room takes up less than 500 square feet, has movable walls, which are opened every morning and closed every evening after dinner. In fact, you can sit in our wading pool and look through our home into the mountain behind us. The home that isn't there. We don't need lights. Oh, and we don't have a/c, we either have a constant breeze from the ocean or from the mountains.

I've killed the overhead light - which was an ugly, outdated beast - and have created a warm, "lit from below" feel with lamps. It's perfect - creates a cozy kitchen with lighting just where you want it - and when. I've got one over by the stove, one on the counter that's tucked away (both with generic brushed silver bases) and a large Kartell Bourgie on the kitchen island. It has a dimmer - so there's lots of control. I've always found overhead lighting - in any room- harsh and unflattering. Lamps are a quick fix when you can't afford to do something costly - and permanent - to a place you don't own.

lonv166, that sounds incredible. Are you in the southern hemisphere? In summer I can often get away with no kitchen lights, but this time of year I'm usually preparing breakfast before there's sufficient natural light (despite three kitchen windows) and just starting dinner as the sun's nearly set.

We have one ugly overhead light (and our ceilings are actually too high for me to change the light bulbs, even with my step ladder), and another tiny, weird yellowy light just above the stove. It suffices, but it definitely makes food look a bit unappetizing.

Sarah Rae, I love the look of your "icky" overhead chandelier, though I'm sure it doesn't provide adequate lighting. Very kitschy and cute, nevertheless.

We had two basic round fixtures probably from the 1980s, one over the sink and one over the stove. The fixture over the stove died, so we replaced it with a brighter, more current fixture. The kitchen is so much brighter since we made the switch that I am sorely tempted to replace the one above the sink too, despite the current plan to eventually 1) install a recirculating fan where the stove fixture is, and 2) move the stove fixture to above the sink, replacing the existing fixture. I would also really love some undercabinet lighting, but I don't want fluorescents, so I am interested to see if anyone has other suggestions.

My kitchen has a big window, but one that's absolutely useless for light, no matter the time of day or day - it looks out into a 2 metre gap between buildings. So I'm stuck with an ugly but mostly functional overhead fluorescent. I'd really like to put in some over-counter lighting to make dish-washing and food prep easier, but worry about cluttering up the counters, since as a renter it's not really feasible to install anything permanent.

We have a large window over the sink, but the roof overhangs the house with 2-3 meters outside, so in the winter very little natural light penetrates (and since it gets dark around 16:00, we don't see it at all during the week:-)
We just bought this beautiful lamp to replace the fluorescent monstrosity which was there when we bought the house: http://www.louispoulsen.com/in/Product/pendants/ph%203_2%20pendant.aspx

My lighting and window situation is nothing to brag about but the previous owners put a skylight in the center of the kitchen prep area. I love it!

While I have windows with amazing views, at night there is NO LIGHT over my stove or prep area. We replaced the main kitchen light, but cannot convince DH to install task lighting. I'm drawing up a wild kitchen remodel, though, and so keep your fingers crossed for me.

@amberwitch - ENVY! Love that entire ph lamp system!

I have a double window on the wall opposite the sink and a tiny window above the sink. Unfortunately our rented lot is covered in Georgia scrub pine which blocks out most of the light from September to May but still succedes in giving full veiws of my breakfast attire to our neighbor's pouty, smoking son.

I did hack the 1983 fixture by removing it's dangling glass panes and adding a drum shade turned upside down (And using a garbage bag tie to shorten the chain and spare my husband's head) so that gives a lovely glow in the evenings.

Off topic, but I have to ask: what is that picture in the top left corner of the image? Any idea who the illustrator is? I adore it!

I have two large windows and a skylight..Track over my counter and two drums hanging from the ceiling to light the room.Both my windows are north exposure and they don't bring in the light as much as one would think.The skylight is southwest.My light sources need to constantly adapt through the day.Thanks to the windows I don't need as much task lighting as many others do.
The electrical was recently upgraded,along with the kitchen and the window over the sink was punched through at that time.Previous to the upgrades my kitchen was a black hole.Not enough hydro to use mod cons and lights at the same time.We lived with that for over ten years.Nightmare!If I was ever faced with 'black hole' ever again,I would splurge on an electrician and give up anything else to get the job done.Pulling wires does not necessarily mean the entire kitchen needs to be demoed.Wiring can be done without causing more damage than the average homeowner couldn't fix themselves.It's worth the cost, if your own, and don't want the expense of a tear out.

I've seen some very inexpensive 'task' type fixtures that plug in.That might be a great solution for some renters also.Check out the kitchens in the big box stores to see how they get hidden when hardwired.I've also seen people use bookcase lighting that hangs from atop the cabinets.Anything will do if it's safe and economical when you are renting.Check out the LED lighting and be creative with it.There are all kinds of LED strips etc...for kitchens,closets,wall units and the like,that can be used anywhere with an outlet.Could be an affordable option for renters.

When this house's previous owners decided to add on to the house, they added a dining room to the kitchen, which is great. But they put in flourescent lighting and made it so we have to replace parts of the paneled ceiling if we want to install a light fixture centered over our table, because they cut holes in the paneling instead of doing the wiring properly. Also, they failed to put a window in the only south-facing wall; there is a door, but that doesn't do anything for my seedlings in the spring. (This year I'm winter sowing and putting it all outside early to see if that works for me.)