Ann Moore Spencer

Have you tried in­cor­po­rat­ing a chan­de­lier in­to your decor and you are not pleased with the re­sult?In the past these ex­quis­ite fix­tures were used al­most ex­clu­sive­ly by the rich and pow­er­ful. So now chan­de­liers evoke feel­ings of lux­u­ry and op­u­lence. It is a sure way of dress­ing up a room. But not every chan­de­lier will fit every space. There are fix­tures ap­pro­pri­ate for every dec­o­rat­ing style – tra­di­tion­al, con­tem­po­rary, ca­su­al, for­mal, whim­sy, rus­tic, etc.I sus­pect, though, that your chan­de­lier may be suf­fer­ing from what I call the "float­ing syn­drome". Dec­o­ra­tive ac­ces­sories must be per­ceived to be an­chored or con­nect­ed to the room and oth­er decor el­e­ments. Your chan­de­lier may be too small, may the wrong style or mount­ed too high.Is your chan­de­lier hung at the right height? In a din­ing room with a 8' ceil­ing, the bot­tom of the chan­de­lier should be ap­prox. 30 – 34? above the ta­ble or about 5' from the floor. If the ceil­ing is high­er, the fix­ture can be mount­ed 3? high­er for every foot over 8'. Hung too high you can be robbed of good light­ing. Hung too low you can be plagued by glare or be ob­struct­ed. For ad­di­tion­al dec­o­ra­tive eq­ui­ty, con­sid­er us­ing mul­ti­ple-tiered fix­tures.

Your chan­de­lier may be too small for your ta­ble. The di­am­e­ter of the chan­de­lier should be be­tween ? the size of the ta­ble or 12? small­er than the width of your ta­ble. Your chan­de­lier should al­so have at least 4? of space from each wall. If your ta­ble is ex­tra long and nar­row con­sid­er us­ing more than one chan­de­lier along the length of the ta­ble.Is your chan­de­lier may be too small for the room. Use a large chan­de­lier to an­chor a large space, while us­ing wall sconces or lamps for am­bi­ent light­ing. How can you de­ter­mine the best size chan­de­lier to use for your space? As a guide, add the length di­men­sion of the room to the width (in feet). The re­sult is the ap­prox­i­mate size in inch­es for your chan­de­lier. For ex­am­ple, in a 12? x 16? room, the rec­om­mend­ed di­am­e­ter of your chan­de­lier is 28?.For a 10' x 10'room use a chan­de­lier 17? – 20? For a 12' x 12' room use a chan­de­lier 26? – 27? For a 14' x 14' room use 24? – 36?Your chan­de­lier should match the dec­o­rat­ing style of your space. An an­tique brass or or­nate crys­tal chan­de­lier will look out of place in a very ca­su­al din­ing room. Wood chan­de­liers can ei­ther be rus­tic or con­tem­po­rary styled.Con­sid­er us­ing chan­de­liers in oth­er rooms for an un­ex­pect­ed dose of luxe. First im­pres­sions are last­ing. Your en­try­way can ben­e­fit from larg­er grander fix­tures. Chan­de­liers can al­so be used suc­cess­ful­ly in kitchens, pow­der rooms, bath­rooms and bed­rooms.