Blog Details

Chandelier Selection and Placement

A chandelier can make a stunning statement in your home’s interior design. If you are gearing up to install new, eco-friendly lights throughout your home, talk to your LED lighting specialists in San Jose about the possibility of installing a brand-new chandelier. Not only will an LED chandelier help you save energy, but this light fixture can also serve as a central focal point for your room. When you are shopping for and installing a new chandelier, be sure to keep following the Do’s and Don’ts of chandelier selection and placement in mind.

Choose a chandelier that is properly sized
As you are picking out a brand new chandelier for your home, you will want to ensure that you select a fixture that is the right size for your space. An oversized chandelier will overwhelm your interior design aesthetic, whereas a fixture that is too small may look out of place in the room. To calculate the ideal dimensions for your chandelier, you should find a fixture that has a diameter that is about 1/12 th the square footage of the room.

Place your chandelier too close to a wall or window
Once you have found a chandelier that is the right size for your room, your next task will be to find the ideal spot for installation. If your chandelier is installed so that it touches a wall or window, it may throw the design of your room off balance. Ideally, your chandelier should be no closer than 4 feet from any adjacent walls.

Hang your chandelier at a safe height
Whether your home has high, vaulted ceilings or is lower in profile, you will need to adjust the length of your chandelier with care. A chandelier that is installed in the middle of a room should be high enough so that you and your family members can walk underneath the fixture with ease. When you are installing a chandelier over a dining room table, make sure that your fixture is at least 3 feet from the surface of the tabletop.

How big should my chandelier be in my dining room?
Chandeliers are sized by diameter and height. The number of bulbs may also impact size. I recommend a chandelier’s diameter be 1/2 to 2/3 the width of your dining table. Today’s average dining room chandelier is a four to six-light, 26-30″ diameter fixture. Take ceiling height and chandelier height into consideration before buying, too. The chandelier should hang about 30″- 36″ from the top of your table to the bottom of the fixture itself. A chandelier that is too tall might end up sitting almost on top of your table! However, if you have tall ceilings a two- or three-tiered design could work great.

Are there chandeliers that use modern technology like LEDs?
Contemporary lighting designers and manufacturers are coming out with incredible new LED chandeliers every day. LED technology has improved so much that often you cannot tell the difference between an LED fixture and a traditional incandescent one. Even better – some lighting designers now prefer designing with LEDs, simply because they allow for some really unique design opportunities! LEDs are so small that designers don’t have to worry about concealing the light source. This means there is much more freedom to experiment with form, function, and material.

In addition to design flexibility, other advantages of LED lighting include increased efficiency and
reliability, which translates into significant energy and cost savings. LEDs run five times cooler
than halogen bulbs while expending 1/5 of the energy. LEDs also outlast other light sources, with a
projected lifespan of about 50,000 hours—25 years of use at 5 ½ hours a day.

Cart