How to choose the right size Hanging Light Fixture

If you have a fairly square room, then just

measure the width and length of the room and add the numbers together.

This will give you the width size that your hanging light fixture should be.

So if your room is 12x14 then you will want a 26” wide light fixture.

This is from a home that I built and you can see the whole house tour here.

Sometimes you might have a room that is much more rectangular such as a foyer.

This foyer below includes the staircase and the hallway back to other rooms in the house.

Do we want to fill the whole ceiling space or concentrate on the direct area over the front door?

In this case I did fill the whole foyer because this is a dramatic entry with a 20’ plus ceiling

with elaborate ceiling details, so I wanted to emphasize the entire space as a whole.

You can see this rest of this home by going here.

Below is another example of utilizing the entire foyer space.

Via Traditional Homes

I wrote a post about foyers and entries which you can read here, that shows other gorgeous foyers.

But sometimes you will only want to emphasize the immediate foyer because you are wanting it to stand on its own.

So in this case measure what you perceive to actually be the foyer and apply the same width rule.

Via Pinterest

When you have a long narrow hallway you can hang several lights along the way.

In this case divide the space up along the way to get your length size.

So if your hallway is 20 x 4. Divide that 20 into 4 sections for a length of 5’x4’ = 9” in width for your width size.

I wrote a post about ceiling details which you can read here.

A Georgian foyer with multiple hanging lanterns.

Via Georgian Design

Simply stunning.

Via Veranda

Look how cute this hanging light is in this alcove.

Measure this little area to get your width measurements.

It could be a round area – lets say 5x5 so a 10” width fixture would work great.

At Home Arkansas

And sometimes rules are made to be broken.

Via The Glitter Guide

Do you follow this rule when choosing your hanging fixtures?

 

Linking to:

From My Front Porch To Yours 
Common Ground 
French Country Cottage 
My Romantic Home 
Redoux Interiors