How to Choose a Hanging Light Fixture

Whether you're building a new home or just revamping a kitchen that's too out of date to invite your family into, you'll eventually face the issue of what sort of light fixture to add to your plans. Once you've established a budget, you'll want to consider several issues carefully before you go down to the home center and lose yourself in the lighting section.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Tape measure
• Paper and pencil

1. Decide the purpose of the hanging light. Will it be used for atmosphere or does it have a specific task? Is it for general illumination or do you want it to light a work surface? The answers to these questions will dictate a number of choices that you will need to make before you head for that glistening island of light at the home center. Remember that you're going to have to live with the fixture you pick for a long time. Tastes and styles change, so make your choice something classic enough to last but stylish enough to reflect your personality.

2. 
    
   An informal chandelier in a dining area shouldn't be so large or hang so low that people hit their heads when they stand up from the table

   Determine whether there are any further decisions that need to be made so that your fixture fits in to the overall design of your space. Do you need to do some research in historic and architectural styles to make sure that your fixture "fits" your home or interior design? What size fixture should you have so that it doesn't look puny or gross in the space you have.

3. Decide whether you want a chandelier (three or more lights hanging from one source), a pendant (one light) or a combination (two or three lights on a light bar, suspended from the ceiling). The old track lighting has given way to a more stylish and efficient, low-voltage version with pinpoint spots or lights attached to a flexible support, hung from the ceiling. If you live in an historic house--or have a favorite historic style--there are also fixtures to fit your fancy.

4. 
    
   A simple pendant light illuminates a kitchen work island

   What kind of activities will take place under and around your new light fixture? If the kids play dodge-ball in the room, a fixture with a non-breakable globe at the end of a sturdy pole will be more practical than a chandelier with crystal prisms, bobeches, triedres and drop beads, suspended on a silver chain. On the other hand, the crystal chandelier (or a graceful five-light one with little lapshades) would be right for a formal dining room.

5. Look for the best fixture you can afford. Check bulb bases to be sure they are secure and well-soldered. Lots of fixtures are brass or nickel but a lot of cheap fixtures are thin or plated brass or nickel. Hanging fixtures are constantly subject to gravity and connections and the parts they hang on or from tend to suffer more stress than wall-mounted lighting. If you sacrifice quality for looks, you're not getting a bargain.

6. There are plenty of on line places to order lighting fixtures but you need to know what you're ordering before you order it. Most big home centers have knowledgeable people and lighting stores often have designers on staff who will be happy to consult. Some on line sources will also provide advice but you aren't able to visually inspect the fixtures. And, of course, if you're working with a contractor who has experience, he may have some good advice.

Tips & Warnings

• Pay attention to what kind of lamp your fixture will use. Incandescent lamps can be replaced by energy-efficient fluorescent lamps but are not as bright as halogen lamps, which, in turn, are brighter but tend to burn very hotly. The cost of replacement lamps can become a consideration in your planning.
• In Colonial days, chandeliers were hung on ropes and lowered to clean and change candles or raised for large gatherings where furniture was moved to the walls. Be sure to hang your fixtures low enough for their task but high enough to walk under. It's easier to take out a few links of chain or inches of brass pipe now than cope with Uncle Joe when he cracks his head at Christmas.
• Although light fixtures can be changed easily by most homeowners, any wiring that is done should at the very least be checked by an electrician.