Kitchen islands and peninsulas have become very popular features desired by home buyers. Kitchens are now designed with much more space and often become a gathering point for the entire family. For lighting, many opt for attractive wrought iron kitchen island lights.
In determining the proper height to hang your light, you must first ask yourself how you plan to use your kitchen island, for the answer will depend on whether the kitchen island will be used as only as a workspace for food preparation or if it will also be used for dining with seating placed around it.
If used only for food preparation, the kitchen island workspace must be well-lit, especially if you plan on doing a lot of fine dicing, chopping and cooking. In this case, you will want to hang your light about 30 inches above the kitchen island counter top. Typically, kitchen islands are wide enough that you will not have to worry about hitting your head when reaching across the island if the light is hung at this height.
If you plan on using your kitchen island also for dining and have seating placed around it, then you will want to hang your light 36 to 40 inches above the counter top. This extra height will keep the light from hanging directly in the line of sight of those sitting around the island. This guideline can also be used for hanging wrought iron bar lights above a bar.
In the case of billiard or pool table lights, you will want the bottom of the light fixture to be 32 to 36 inches above the playing surface.