Pendant lights gained popularity as new home construction raised the ceilings and opened the floor plans. They dominated kitchen counters and bathroom sinks. They did their job as task lighting. But, pendant lights have become so much more.
Designers and homes owners have found hanging pendant lights adds personality to any interior. But, making that work takes a plan:
* Have a lighting plan. When you buy a lamp in a big box store, it’s hard to visualize how it will look in your space. At best, it comes in a box with an illustration.
You need a plan that includes key features of lighting in general. For instance, a lighting fixture directs illumination towards a targeted table, counter, ceiling, or wall. It does its job to light a task.
As it does so, the illumination has a shape: a shaft, cone, rectangle, and so on. It may direct light up or down, but it also spreads an ambient light. With a lighting plan, you visualize how those tasks and shapes appear in your room.
Your plan must anticipate how high or low your lamps must work with the scale, style, and traffic in the area. And, you must consider how warm and cool you want the mood and personality you want to create.
* Layer your personality. Pendants free floorspace by replacing table and floor lamps. But, you should resist hanging them wherever they fit.
Hanging fixtures let you do several things at once. They do their task. But, in larger terms, they can add personality to any interior. For instance, it the pendant shoots light upward, it makes the room larger where low hanging pendants create a sense of height. Hanging pendants in sequence provide direction, hanging single lamps call attention, and hanging them in clusters make rooms warmer and engaging.
* Integrate the light and the fixture. The light and the lamp are not the same things. Many different fixtures can achieve the same light. But, it’s the fixture that reflects the room’s personality.
The fixture must lead or follow your selection of other design elements: furniture, fabrics, accents, and wall treatments. It must complement or determine room colors, materials, and themes.
You must decide on big and bold or soft and subtle. Light tones enlarge a space whereas dark or bright colors catch attention and interest.
* Think modern. Modern fixtures like Lamont recall mid-20th-century office and industrial environments. Geometric and classic in simplicity, it hangs satin brass and white acrylic as a 16.75-inch wide and 18.75-inch flat surfaced “sphere.”
The vintage and industrial feel seem, somehow, contemporary. It’s less a task lamp and more an ambient statement. Hung individually, Lamont welcomes guests to your foyer, defines a reading or conversation area, or illuminates the head of a staircase. Hung in sequence, they will light a hallway, softly grace a dining room, or brighten a kitchen counter or breakfast bar.
* Think Contemporary. Contemporary interior design wants to pull together past and futures. For example, the Palmer incorporates sleek minimalistic lines. It’s as clean and uncluttered as the Lamont. But, this thin cylinder hangs as low as 70-inches from a ceiling to create drama and set the mood. Palmer is simple and geometric. But, the satin brass frame, soft muted LED light, and dramatic height make a singular statement. Designers hang these in corners to draw attention, in foyers to invite visitors, and in rooms to accent artworks. Or, they hang them in series over bath counters, along galleries, or over handsome dining tables. Wherever placed, the Palmer adds a contemporary dynamic and soft energy.
Hanging pendant lights adds personality to any interior
Pendants lights have taken over the design world. Functional yet dramatic, unique yet traditional, bold or discrete, pendant lamps work in large or small environments or home or business worlds. Creative and unique in multiple shapes and traditions, chic and contemporary and moody and modern.
You can find a place for a variety of pendants in any well-planned lighting strategy.