Whether you choose a chandelier, pendant, or a grouping of smaller lights, here’s how high to hang a ceiling light fixture over a table.
A stylish chandelier or lantern is often the crowning glory of a dining room or, at the very least, an important focal point in the space. If your ceiling light fixture choice isn’t quite right in terms of style, size, or placement, it can really make the whole room feel kind of “off” and make the design feel incohesive. The right lighting choices, though, can make a simple space suddenly come alive and feel welcoming and complete. Basically, your choice of dining room light fixture really matters, and how you hang it makes a big difference. Since we recently finished up a little dining room refresh that included a new chandelier, I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about ceiling light fixtures for the dining room and a few guidelines for how to hang them. If you’re in the middle of a dining room remodel, or you’re building a new home and want to be sure that the design comes together beautifully; hopefully, these tips will come in handy.
Why the Height of Your Dining Room Light Fixture Makes Such a Difference
This information applies to all types of ceiling lights that drop down from the ceiling and that you adjust in height over a table, such as pendant lighting, lanterns, drum shade lighting, mini pendant groupings, and chandeliers. If you’re installing flush-mount ceiling fixtures or semi-flush mount light fixtures, those are obviously not adjustable. When it comes to wall light fixtures like sconces, or another type of ceiling fixture like ceiling fans, you’ll also need to follow a different set of guidelines to achieve the optimal level of brightness in the space.
Pictured Above: Chandelier | Plates on Plate Wall (Platter, Dinner Plates, Gravy Boat) | White Ginger Jars (Large, Small) | Gold Lamp with Black Shade | Flooring | White Velvet Curtains | Equestrian Print
A dining room should be a cozy, intimate, welcoming space that invites you to settle in and spend time with friends and family over a great meal. When you hang a light fixture too high in the space, it creates a feeling that’s just the opposite: it feels open, airy, and more utilitarian in nature, like it’s a space to pass through quickly. Whether you choose sleek contemporary lighting, something more traditional and ornate, or whether your style leans towards vintage industrial, a dining room should feel inviting, and there should be a certain elegance to the room. The overall lighting design, including lamps, dimmable recessed lighting, pendant lights, and anything else you use for illumination in the space, very much contributes to the overall atmosphere in the space.
The dining room chandelier also anchors the table in the space and makes it feel like it’s in the right place in the room instead of just floating around. Hanging the light a little lower over the table helps to connect the two elements visually and reinforces this anchoring effect.
The General Rule for Ceiling Light Fixture Height Over a Table
Of course, design rules are meant to be broken, but as we just discussed, it’s probably better to break this rule by hanging your chandelier closer to your table rather than high above it if you feel the need to be a rebel. For most regular situations, the basic rule is that your chandelier should hang between 30″and 36″ above the center of your table for things to look and feel just right in the room. In most cases, you shouldn’t concern yourself with how far the chandelier is hanging down from the ceiling but focus solely on the distance between the surface of your dining room table and the bottom of your light fixture. If your room is a bit unusual or has some more extreme dimensions, we’ll discuss what to do in that situation.
One Light or Two?
Since there are such strict rules for chandelier hanging height, you might think that there are strong guidelines for the number of ceiling lighting fixtures over a table, but this is really a matter of personal preference. Generally, the larger your table is, the larger you’ll want your light fixture to be. You may even want to consider doing two pendants, lanterns, or chandeliers over an oval or rectangular table, but you really don’t have to if you’re hoping to keep things simple. For a round or square table, one fixture will be enough in almost every circumstance.
Whether you go with one fixture or two, you want to choose a fixture that is one-half to three-quarters the diameter of your table for a wider, chandelier-style fixture. If you’re a rule breaker, go a little larger than that to give your chandelier a really strong presence in the space, which is what I did here in our dining room.
If Your Ceiling is Higher, Adjust the Height of Your Chandelier as Well
What if your ceilings are higher than a “standard” 8 feet? In our old house, the ceilings are actually a little under 8 feet in our dining room, so we follow the general rule of keeping our light fixture about 30″ over the table, but if your ceilings are nine feet high, ten feet high, or taller over your table, you’ll want to adjust your calculations a bit to make sure that the proportions of the room still look right.
The basic rule of thumb is that you should add three inches to the height of your ceiling fixture for every extra foot of ceiling height. So that means that if your ceilings are nine feet high, you’ll want your dining room light to hang about 33″ over your table. If your ceilings are ten feet high, go for 36″ over the table.
As I mentioned earlier, there is a range that you can work with, as the standard rule is 30-36″, but always start with the ceiling pendant lower to the table, then raise it up a few inches by removing rings from the hanging chain or by cutting the metal rod that the light fixture hangs from as necessary if you think it needs a little adjustment.
Should a Light Be Centered Over the Table or at the Center of the Room?
The dining light is really meant to anchor the table in the room and reinforce the dining table as a focal point, so you want your chandelier, lantern, or pendant light centered over where the table will be, not centered in the room. If your table is in the middle of the room, this is an easy task, but if your table is off to one side or in a corner, plan your lighting carefully to make sure your table can be placed right under it. You want to be sure that the table looks like it’s in the right spot in the room and also that there’s enough space around it for traffic flow and to pull chairs out to sit in.
Pictured Above: Chandelier | Plates on Plate Wall (Platter, Dinner Plates, Gravy Boat) | White Ginger Jars (Large, Small) | Gold Lamp with Black Shade | Flooring | White Velvet Curtains | Equestrian Print
If you follow all of these considerations when hanging your dining room light fixture, you’ll end up with a dining room that just feels right and functions as it should.
Two final tips when it comes to lighting in a space that’s meant to be cozy and inviting, whether it be a foyer, hallway, or dining room: Always use warm-toned bulbs and always (always!) install a dimmer.
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.