The best lighting for low ceilings

A low ceiling does not need more light than a high one - often it needs less, because the light has less distance to travel. What it creates is a glare problem: every ceiling fixture is closer to your eyes, and every hanging fixture is closer still.

Under an 8 foot ceiling, a fixture that drops even a few inches sits near the eyeline of anyone standing, and you glance at it every time you cross the room. A bright source that close is uncomfortable in a way the same fixture under a 10 foot ceiling is not.

So the approach has two parts: keep fixtures slim and tight to the ceiling, and spread the light widely enough that no single point is harsh. Then, optionally, use one trick to make the ceiling itself feel higher.

Feit enclosed-rated A19 - for the flush mount you already have. Most low-ceiling rooms have a flush mount, and most flush mounts are sealed. This bulb gives about 1,500 lumens at 2700K and CRI 90+ with the enclosed rating the dome needs.
Cons: a sealed flush mount still throws light mostly downward, so it needs help from a lamp to feel soft.

Yuji CRI-MAX BR30 - for recessed cans. 1,200 lumens at CRI 95+ with a published 180-degree beam that spreads rather than spotlights. A wide beam is what stops low-ceiling cans from making hard pools on the floor.
Cons: 3000K only, and it needs a can to go in.

GE 36 in. convertible bar - for a basement or utility room. 3000K at CRI 90 in a slim linear fixture that sits nearly flush and plugs into an outlet. In a low basement a thin linear source avoids both the glare and the head clearance problem - see basement lighting.
Cons: no published lumen figure, and stepped rather than stepless dimming.

Brightech Sky torchiere - the trick that lifts the ceiling. 2,190 published lumens aimed at the ceiling. This is covered below, and it is the most effective single change in a low room.
Cons: uplighting depends on a pale ceiling; a dark one absorbs it.

Here is the counterintuitive part. A room lit entirely from overhead fixtures looks lower than it is, because the ceiling above the lights stays dark and reads as a heavy lid pressing down.

Light the ceiling itself and the effect reverses. An uplight bounced off a pale ceiling makes the ceiling the brightest surface in the room, and a bright ceiling reads as further away. It is the same mechanism described in where to put a floor lamp, and in a low room it is the single highest-return move available.

Place the uplight in a corner so two walls and the ceiling all reflect it. Keep the ceiling pale - a dark ceiling absorbs uplight and undoes the effect. Keep overhead fixtures modest so the ceiling wash, not a bright dome, is what the eye notices.

Where a pendant is unavoidable - over a dining table or an island - keep it there, where nobody walks beneath it. Everywhere else, a low ceiling and a hanging fixture do not mix.