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Pendant lighting is an evergreen trend for domestic interior design. With its many applications and versatile styles, hanging pendant lights can be incorporated into just about any space.
Read on to learn about ceiling pendant lights and get some helpful pendant lighting tips for using them in your home lighting design.
What Are Pendant Lights and Why Are They Popular?
Pendant lights are a style of light fixture that hangs from the ceiling. Much like a pendant necklace has a charm or pendant attached to its chain, a pendant light has a lampshade attached to its drop cable.
Pendant lights can be used for all manner of applications, from ambient lighting to task lighting. They come in an assortment of styles and colors, making it simple for you to include them in any decor.
Due to their sheer versatility and style, pendant lights are and have always been a popular way to light the home. Figuring out how to choose pendant lights for your home can feel a little daunting due to the sheer number of options. Fortunately, you can narrow it down pretty easily.
Choosing the Right Pendant Light Style for Your Home
As mentioned, there are a number of different pendant lighting styles for home design available. While there are not necessarily any concrete, hard-and-fast pendant light rules, there are pendant lighting best practices that you should keep in mind. This is true both when shopping for and installing your pendants.
Before you start shopping, you should first get familiar with the space you are looking to light. This means taking a moment to figure out the size of your room, as well as what areas in particular you are looking to light up.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make is choosing a pendant light that is inappropriately sized for their space. Oversized pendant lights in small rooms can make the space feel cramped and tight. On the other hand, small pendants in a room with high ceilings may get swallowed up in all of that empty space.
Therefore, figuring out how to use pendant lights in home décor comes down to the size of the room you are lighting. You will also need to take into account the existing style of the space as well.
Take a look at the materials, finishes and overall colour scheme of your space. Find pendant lights that match their appearance in order to effortlessly incorporate them into your home.
How to Determine the Correct Height for Pendant Lights
Pendant light height and spacing is ultimately determined by where exactly you plan to install them. Different rooms in the house tend to have different pendant light home design rules associated with them.
Kitchen Pendant Lights
Pendant lights in kitchen spaces have their height dependent upon the surfaces they are hung above. When hanging pendant lights above kitchen island areas, you want to aim for eye-level. This means hanging them about 30 to 36 inches above the countertop.
For dining tables, the best pendant lighting placement will be about the same. Aim for somewhere between 30 and 36 inches from the tabletop to eliminate visual obstructions while talking to one another.
Living Room Pendant Lights
Pendant lights for living room areas will be different, since there are no central surfaces you’re hanging the light over. You should aim for a height clearance of around seven feet just to be safe. This should ensure no family member hits their heads on the light without making it feel claustrophobic.
Bedroom Pendant Lights
Many people enjoy hanging pendant lights low over their bedside tables to serve as a nightlight. It is recommended that you hang it around 26 to 32 inches above the top of the table. This will give nice ambience and lighting levels while still leaving room for books or decor.
Hallway and Entryway Pendant Lights
Depending on how tall your ceilings are here, you may need to play around to find the best height. Still, home pendant lighting rules generally suggest hanging it a minimum of seven feet from the floor. If you have a winding staircase with a lot of vertical space, adding multiple lights at different heights can spread illumination through the space beautifully.
As an aside, when it comes to spacing, pendant light positioning rules are pretty consistent throughout the house. It is generally recommended that you space your lights 45 centimeters apart if using multiple pendant lights. Similarly, try to install them in odd numbers–ideally either three or five, depending on how large the room is.
How to Layer Pendant Lights with Other Light Fixtures
Layering lights is an important element of interior design. This is the process of installing different types of lighting throughout a given space to give it a balanced look. The three layers of light include:
- Ambient light is the main layer of light in a room. It provides the overall illumination that lays the foundation for the rest of the room. This light can then be supplemented with the other layers of light.A bright, oversized pendant light can be used as ambient lighting in a room. By placing a bright pendant light in the center of the room, you can cast illumination from a central point and then fill in any gaps in illumination with task or accent lights.
- Task lighting is used to provide more focused lighting to certain areas in a space. Cooking surfaces, office desks, reading nooks and anywhere else where dedicated activities take place benefit from task lights.You can use pendants to supplement ambient light by using it as task lighting in important areas of the room. Turn them into task lights for cooking, bedside lights, craft tables and beyond.
- The final layer of light, accent lights decorate and enhance the overall atmosphere of the room. Accent lights are used to highlight certain design elements or to help generate mood lighting.Pendant lights can be used as atmospheric mood lighting. Set them on a dimmer switch on separate controls from the main light. Then, turn them on alone when you want low level, intimate lighting to relax by.
Common Pendant Lighting Mistakes to Avoid
When installing pendants, there are a few common mistakes that many amateur interior designers tend to make. Check out the following pendant lighting installation tips to ensure your lights are properly placed.
- WRONG SIZE PENDANTS. Be sure that you are choosing pendant lights that are appropriate for the size of the room. Large rooms will need larger pendants, and sometimes, they will need clusters of pendant lights. Smaller rooms can usually get away with solitary, smaller pendant lights. This will avoid overcrowding spaces that already feel cramped.
- IMPROPER SPACING. Putting pendant lights too close together or too far apart can cause hotspots of light. It can also cast unwanted shadows. Place your pendant lights near one another in a way that is proportionate to the rest of the room.
- CLASHING LIGHT TEMPERATURES. Warm lights tend to be preferred in domestic settings. That said, warm and cool lights both have their perks and places in the home. Be sure you only choose one or the other, though; having both cool and warm light temperatures in a space can cause abrasive clashing.
- TOO HIGH OR TOO LOW. Take care to hang the lights at the right position in each room. This tends to be around eye-level for seating areas like dining tables and desks. In the middle of rooms, aim for around seven feet off of the ground.
How to Maintain and Clean Pendant Lights
When it comes to pendant lights, interior design and aesthetics aren’t the only things you’ll need to consider. Maintaining your pendant lights is another key part of using pendants in the home.
Fortunately, cleaning and maintaining your pendants isn’t a difficult task. It’s usually as simple as doing a quick check on occasion. Look for any burned out bulbs, cracked fixtures, or faulty wires. If you notice any, be sure to remedy them as soon as possible.
You will also want to occasionally dust your pendant lights. The bulbs and the shades themselves will both accumulate dust over time and need to be cleaned. If you notice dust buildup, you can easily wipe it away with a slightly dampened cloth.
Conclusion
Pendant lights can bring style and illumination in equal measure to freshen up your interior design. In the article above, we have offered pendant lights in home décor tips to help you get the most out of your pendant light placement.
Pendant Lighting Design Ideas
Decorate your modern kitchen with the LPL364 5 Watt Hanging LED Pendant Light. This pendant light features a modern circular shape on the end of a cylindrical post. It houses within it a bulb that generates 350 lumens of 3000K warm white light at a 30 degree beam angle. This fixture is fashioned out of durable aluminium that comes finished in your choice of white, black, or black and gold finishes. It measures a total size of 148 millimeters in diameter.
Modernise your home with the LPL400 4 Watt Modern Hanging LED Pendant Light. This pendant light features an ultra contemporary design consisting of a pyramidal lamp and a flat opal acrylic disc above it that diffuses the illumination. It outputs 470 lumens of 3000K warm white light that is soft and easy on the eyes. This fixture is fashioned out of durable aluminium finished in either black or gold. The lamp shade measures 230 millimeters in diameter and attaches to a 2000 millimeter drop cable.
Show off your quirky modern style with the LPL335 20 Watt LED Pendant Light – Up and Down Lighter. This unique lamp shines 2000 lumens of 3000K warm white light both and and down from the fixture. The illumination spreads through an opal acrylic shade on both ends that further softens and diffuses the light. It is fashioned out of durable steel in a black finish and measures 220 millimeters in diameter. The fixture is complete with a 2000 millimeter adjustable drop cable for hanging.
Perfect for long dining tables, the LPL142A 20 Watt Black LED Pendant Ceiling Light is a lengthy bar light that spreads ample illumination over a wider area of space. This aliminium pendant measures 1170 millimeters long and is finished in brushed black. It generates an ultra bright 2000 lumens of 3000K warm white light that shines at a 120 degree beam angle. Te fixture comes complete with a 1000 millimeter adjustable drop cable.
