Kitchen Lighting: A Passion for Pendants

Lighting options for your kitchen are vast, from inset lights installed beneath your cabinets, to chandeliers near the seating area. Since there is a lot of activity that takes place in a kitchen, the last thing you want is for your lighting to get in the way of what you need to do.

Pendant lighting hangs from the ceiling, so you can have a stylish, well-lit kitchen without losing any counter space. Pendant lights come in so many different shapes and sizes that you can surely find one that fits your design aesthetic, whether you’re going for elegant or country.

How Pendants Work

A pendant light hangs down by at least a few inches, and sometimes more than a foot, from the ceiling. Sometimes the lighting is strung by a chain, and other times a pole is used that disguises the wires attached to your fixture. Naturally, the light must hang directly beneath electric wiring, and these lights are usually attached to a wall switch.

Where to Place a Pendant

If you are moving into a used home and don’t want to remodel the wiring, you may not have a choice about where you hang your favorite light. However, if you are building a home from scratch or are willing to do some rewiring, you can elect to put your pendant light almost anywhere in the room.

If you have the choice, hang your fixture so that it’s centered over a crucial piece in the room, such as your sink, kitchen island, or dining room table. This will turn the area into a design focal point, and these are all places where you naturally need a lot of light anyway.

How Low to Hang Your Light

A pendant light should hang so that it falls between 12 and 20 inches below an eight foot ceiling. If your ceilings are higher than that, add an extra three inches for every foot of height. For instance, for a 10 foot ceiling, the pendant light should hang 18 to 26 inches below the ceiling.

This allows the light to fall to the point where it shouldn’t disturb most people who walk underneath, and yet it’s not so tall that it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. To see the design possibilities for home lighting at any height, simply look around via the internet or even your local lighting supplier.

Dimmers

Pendant lights can cast a large amount of light, especially depending on the shades that you choose. Use a dimmer switch if you notice that the lights are just too bright when the day is winding down, or when you want to have an intimate dinner setting.

Pendant lights are ideal for dimming, since they are attached to light switches which can be set up for just such a task. You can also install energy saving and dimmable bulbs into your pendant lights to save even more light energy.

Pendant lights are perfect for a kitchen space, and will stand up for years to come. Choose one that is memorable and also matches your décor, and the compliments will start rolling in.