What Size Should Your Dining Room Pendant Be?

I’m working on the dining room of one of my ongoing, favourite clients. We have chosen a beautiful round table and chairs from Geovin (the table is from their new line and I can’t wait to share more.)

 

The room is actually what would be a breakfast area off the kitchen on the floor plan.  The “real” dining room is on the side of the house with a view of the neighbour’s brick which is typical in many suburban homes (at least in my neighbourhood.)  It made much more sense to make the breakfast area the main dining room. It is at the back of the house surrounded by windows and looks onto open space with the Escarpment beyond.  A much better spot to eat and host dinners.

To me the “nook” (aka one beautiful room when we are done!) was calling out for a lantern as the light fixture over the table.  The clients didn’t want it to be fussy or overdone so a lantern fits the bill. These images are some examples of the type of lantern I suggested – larger at the top and smaller at the bottom and similar to a coach style light you may find outdoors. I’m sure we all remember this one in Tommy Smythe’s former kitchen (this kitchen still gets me 6-7 years later.)

 

My client had bought one but at 14” w x 16” h, it was way too small.  The rule of thumb for dining room lights (be it a pendant or chandelier) is its width should be 1/3 to 1/2 the width of the table.  In our case, that is 18-27”.

The one we are going with is 20”w at its widest point (perfect) BUT its height is 30”! Yikes – that is the height of a table!  So, you have to consider the height of the pendant as well.  The 30” is to the top of where the four chains meet and you require 36” overall. Isn’t she lovely?

Remember this dining room?  This is a modern take on a lantern and is 16”w x 25”h which I think is just perfect for the table and the space overall.  Even though it is not wide in relation to the table, the height provides enough visual weight for it to work.

 

You will notice in all of these photos, that the rooms all have high ceilings and the lanterns are hung higher than the typical 30-36” above the table.  That’s why it works.

All images via Pinterest.

We are still going with the large pendant (the one smaller was only 14” wide and just 3” shorter anyway.)  We will hang it as close to the ceiling as possible so that it doesn’t seem so massive.  It will be 42” above the table (there are 9’ ceilings.)  I think know it will be perfect!

What are you loving in dining room lighting lately? (say that 3x fast!)

PS Sorry for my lack of blogging this past week.  Client work has kept me extremely busy.  I don’t see it easing up until the end of June which is a good thing!

And don’t forget to enter my giveaway here!

If you require design advice, please contact me at vanessa(at)vanessafrancis.com.