Posted on: January 21, 2008
A Beautiful Takeover
Chandeliers are no long just dining-room gems – they are making their move throughout the home, spreading light, ambiance and a touch of class
By Chuck Ross
CTW Features
Full Service: Chandeliers are carving out space in each room, showing how elegance and functionality can blend together. Image courtesy iStockphoto
Chandeliers have long been thought the most elegant of lighting fixtures, calling to mind crystal-wrought creations from European castles and top-tier hotels. But, today, you’re just as likely to come across stylish suspended lighting in a neighbor’s powder room. And, with available styles ranging from Old World traditional to contemporary chic, you’re sure to find some illuminating options for your home, too.
“We’re selling chandeliers for every room in the house,” says Nick Longo, lighting consultant and owner of Details Lighting, a showroom based in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. “Even the powder room and the bedroom.”
While the common image of the chandelier may seem a bit overpowering for such spaces, a trip to your local lighting showroom may bring some new ideas to, well, light. New mini-chandelier styles, especially, are expanding small-room options. These styles offer utility and glamour in proportions more suitable to tight spaces.
“With a mini-chandelier no longer than 18 inches, you can still walk underneath,” Longo says. “They’re scaled down to meet any situation, and they add an enormous amount of character and texture to what otherwise could be a boring room.”
Rosemarie Allaire, owner of Dana Point, Calif.-based Rosemarie Allaire Lighting Design, agrees that a chandelier can enhance a room’s interior, both as a decorative element and because of the nature of the light it produces.
“I call decorative lighting the ambient component,” she says. “It gives light 360 degrees, and then down. It also responds to the architecture of the interior, it contributes to the look, the style, the flavor.”
Though contemporary styles, featuring clean lines and globes made of everything from clear or colored Italian glass to alabaster, are going strong, both of these professionals see greater popularity in more traditional designs. Allaire’s Southern California clients often favor Mediterranean-style fixtures to complement that region’s architecture, she says. Longo says that crystal styles remain a popular choice among his East Coast clientele.
However, Longo adds that new designs are making previously formal crystal designs more fun, and are opening up the possibilities for more casual installations. He adds that new crystal being imported from Asia is also making such products more affordable.
“Crystal is real big now,” he says. “Now we’re selling them in pink crystal, for a little girl’s room, or tea staining them for an antique feeling.” Fruit-shaped crystals also are being harvested from overseas manufacturers, Longo says, to create colorful, decorative fixtures for kitchens.
In kitchen settings, where food-prep and eating areas have different lighting requirements, chandeliers can complement single-light pendant fixtures. Pendants, which most often cast light downward, are good choices for task areas, like kitchen islands and sinks, Longo says. A chandelier over the table, drawing on a related style or colors (while not exactly matching) can help separate this area visually as its own space and create a pleasing ambience for family dinners.
Chandelier selection doesn’t end with choosing a style, though, these experts add. You also need to make sure the fixture is big enough to make a statement, without being overpowering. And, since a chandelier occupies three dimensions, you need to keep in mind your room’s height as well as floor plan when making your choice.
“Ceiling height is one of the first factors to consider, along with the geometry and scale of the room,” Allaire says. “Things need to be proportional.”
Longo suggests writing down all your room’s measurements for reference in the showroom. Visual memory may well desert you when you’re confronted with a room of hanging light fixtures of varying shapes and sizes.
“Naturally, you want the fixture to be in scale with the space,” Longo says. “So it’s very important when you’re shopping to have the dimensions with you. There’s a real difference between an 8-foot and a 9-foot ceiling, in terms of the options available to you.”
Taking digital pictures of the intended installation space can be a big help, too, he says. Then just bring the camera with you to show the salesperson the room’s design as well as any physical obstacles.
Determining the right mounting height can be more art than science. In an atrium-style entryway, you may need to consider sight lines from a stairway as well as the floor. And over a table or countertop, you’ll want to measure up from this surface, instead of down from the ceiling. The designers suggest a range of 28 inches to 36 inches up from a tabletop, but the exact height is really a matter of personal choice.
“It’s like hanging a picture on the wall,” Longo says. “You want it to be pleasing to your eye. An inch or two may make a big difference to you.”
Just how brightly your chandelier shines can be another issue of personal choice. These designers are both strong believers in controlling these sources of ambient light with an adjustable dimmer, rather than a simple on/off switch. Not only will your chandelier be more flexible to varying lighting needs, it also will be more economical to operate.
“I dim everything,” Allaire says. “I don’t think lighting should ever be just on or off. It creates the mood, you save on wattage and you save on lamp life.”
“Lamps” are what lighting professionals call light bulbs, and Allaire says that dimming a light fixture just 10 percent can double the life of the average bulb. This may not be so important to the owners of European castles, but it could end up paying off royally for today’s homeowners.
