Pendant lights may lose a bit of notoriety to their showier cousin the chandelier, but that doesn’t mean they’re not a prime pick for almost every room in the house. Whether you’re mulling over a unique lighting option to wake up a bedroom, add function to a kitchen, or dial up the drama in an entryway, pendant lights are worth considering. Here, we explore ways to fashion a pendant light in virtually every room in the house.
Kitchen
If pendant lights were to have a calling card, kitchens would be it. Pendant lights have long taken up the roost above kitchen islands, offering functional, right-where-you-need-it illumination. While designers love statements and vintage pendants, most consider kitchens a place to go with a more basic pendant. The reason? Steel appliances encourage a more modern, clean-lined silhouette. This isn’t to say there isn’t still an opportunity to add pizzaz with kitchen pendant lights.
For a dose of drama, scale up the size of pendant lights over an island. A decade or so ago, stringing up four or five small kitchen pendants was commonplace. These days; however, designers are frequently opting for two large pendants. They’re generally hung equidistant from the island’s edges and at least 24” apart. In addition to imparting a satisfying sense of balance, oversized pendants can hold their own among a kitchen’s larger elements. (Read: range hoods and refrigerators.)
Dining Room
Chandeliers are commonly used in dining rooms, but if you crave something more modernist, a pendant can make for an enticing swap. Go with a planetary-sized pendant if you’ll be subbing a chandelier with a single pendant. Most dining tables’ sheer visual weight requires the balance of a hefty light source. Of course, an apples-to-apples switch isn’t the only option when it comes to pendant lights in a dining room. Multiple small-scale pendant lights can be clustered over a table’s center or marched down the length of a table. (Varied hanging heights can change the tenor of a room even more).
More commonly, dining room pendants are assuming the same position as kitchen island pendants with two mid-sized models hung equidistance from each table end. Keep in mind that dining rooms are best served by atmospheric task light rather than high-wattage overhead light. Pendants rendered in materials that diffuse light are well-suited for dining rooms. Consider paper lantern pendants, as well as ones with frosted or opaque colored glass.
Hallway
In truth, there aren’t many ways to procure personality in hallways save light fixtures. While flush mounts are effective, pendant lights’ drop allots them more stylistic presence. Since hallways are tributaries to the rest of your home, it’s worth taking the time to source a fixture that complements all of your other rooms. Look for transitional styles in classic finishes like brushed chrome, classic brass, or oiled brass. Globe pendants and lanterns, in particular, are quintessential styles for hallways. Both usher a bit of the outdoors in, tempering the distance between a home’s interiors and exteriors.
There’s no hard rule about how far apart you should hang pendant lights in a hallway. That said, the smaller your fixtures are, the closer together they should hang. For average hallways, consider the measurement required to hang three fixtures equidistant. Larger hallways could utilize more fixtures, but you could also just scale up the size of the fixture. As for height, suspend your fixtures at least seven feet above the floor.
Bathroom
Not long ago, pendants’ place in the bath was mostly regulated to an over-the-bathtub moment. While that’s still a hack worth employing, bathroom pendants are now being fashioned in new ways. Among the most favored by designers? Stringing up pendants on either side of a vanity. Ideal for preserving the integrity of a wall-to-wall vanity mirror or a statement tile job, suspending two pendants on either side of your vanity will not only visually entice, but it will direct the light exactly where you want it—namely, your face. Alternatively, you can make a statement by dangling a single pendant on only one side of your vanity. Rogue, absolutely. But it makes an incredible impact.
Since vanity pendants will be hanging in close proximity to your body, refrain from going too big in size. Small or mini pendants should offer an optimal glow without singeing anyone’s sideburns. And again, just like in the dining room, look for pendants in materials that diffuse light. A bare bulb will skew more interrogation room than spa-like.
Bedroom
So long as you keep a firm hold on your pendant’s drop, a pendant in a bedroom can be a striking addition. Just as paint colors and textiles should skew a bit softer in a bedroom, so should your pendant’s aesthetics. Unless your bedroom is a dark, debonair lair, pass on pendants with an excess of metal accents, dark finishes, or sharp angles. All are details that can feel less melodious among a bedroom’s more aerial elements. Rely instead on less structured, more natural-leaning pendants, such as wicker pendants, paper lantern pendants, or even capiz shell pendants.
A pendant orbiting above the bed is a classic design, but not the only option. With a little wiring gusto, you can hang two pendant lights on either side of the bed in lieu of sconces or table lamps. This look reads especially sleek when partnered with a floor-skimming platform bed, or a statement wall or headboard that’s better left unobstructed by ordinary table lamps. To calculate the right drop, install so that pendant globes hover at the height of where an ordinary table lamp’s lampshade would land.
