Alternatives to recessed lighting

Hi all. We are about to start a renovation of a row house. I am not a huge fan of recessed lighting and we chose not to put recessed lights in our last brownstone. However that house was always really dark and it was hard even with floor lamps to get our living room properly lit (and it had windows on three sides). Our contractor wants to install lots of recessed lights in the row house we’re working on now. It’s attached on both sides, gets lots of light in back which is south facing but very little in the front. We’ll have one large light fixture in the front room and a kitchen island with a few pendant lights in the back of the main floor. Any ideas on how to light the space without adding a dozen recessed lights?