Lighting over a kitchen sink

Kitchen lighting usually fails at the sink for a mechanical reason. The ceiling fixtures are behind you, over the middle of the room, and your body blocks them. The brighter the room light, the sharper the shadow you cast into the bowl.

So this is not solved by adding lumens to the room. It is solved by putting a modest light source in front of you - above the sink and slightly toward the counter edge - so the light arrives past your shoulders rather than behind them.

Most kitchens have one of three options available, and which you can use depends entirely on what is above the sink: a ceiling, a window, or a cabinet.

Forward of the bowl, not behind it. Put the light over the front edge of the sink or a few inches toward the counter. Directly overhead is second best; anything behind the bowl is where you started.

Pendant height, from the manufacturer. Visual Comfort's island guidance applies at a sink too: 30 to 36 inches between the bottom of the fixture and the counter surface. Lower looks intimate and gets in the way of a tall faucet; higher lights the room instead of the task.

Recessed placement borrows the layout rules. PacLights puts recessed cans 2 to 3 feet from walls, and 36 inches from walls in kitchens specifically. Over a sink that usually lands the can just in front of the bowl, which is exactly where you want it. The full layout method is in how far apart to space recessed lights.

One source is enough. A sink is a task area of a few square feet. One 800 to 1,200 lumen downlight, or a 24 inch bar, does it. Two cans over a single sink mostly produce two shadows.

Sunco 6 in. canless downlight - the straightforward retrofit. A slim canless light cuts into the ceiling without a housing, which is what makes this practical above a sink where ductwork and plumbing often crowd the joist bay. The selectable color temperature lets you match the rest of the kitchen after it is in.
Cons: it is still a hole in the ceiling and a wiring job.

Sunco BR30 - if a can is already there. Plenty of kitchens have a can above the sink fitted with a tired, dim bulb. An 850 lumen BR30 with a published 110 degree beam is a ten-second fix that solves the shadow without touching the ceiling.
Cons: 2700K is warm for a work surface if the rest of your kitchen task lighting is 3000K.

Lithonia Versi Lite 7 in. - the surface-mount answer. Where there is no room for a recessed housing, a small switchable flush mount on the ceiling above the sink does the same job on the surface, with CRI 90 for the colors of food.
Cons: it hangs below the ceiling plane, which is visible in a small kitchen.

Juno UCES 24 in. bar - for a sink under a cabinet. If there is cabinetry above the sink, a 24 inch bar under it puts light exactly where your hands are, with no ceiling work at all.
Cons: needs a cabinet above the sink, which many kitchens with a window do not have.

Centering on the window. It photographs well and lights your back. If the window and the bowl are not concentric, follow the bowl.

Matching the wrong color. A 4000K light over the sink next to 2700K elsewhere reads as a mistake from across the room. Keep one temperature per visual field - see the color temperature chart.

Forgetting the faucet. Polished metal and a dark window at night make a mirror. A frosted or diffused source, or one placed slightly forward, keeps the reflection out of your eyes.

Renting and doing nothing. A plug-in bar clipped under a cabinet, or a lamp on the counter beside the sink, is entirely reversible. The renter-safe kitchen options are in renter-friendly kitchen lighting.