Dining Room Chandeliers

The chandelier over a dining table is the most-looked-at fixture in a house. People sit under it for an hour at a time, facing each other, with nothing else to look at. Get it wrong and everyone notices without knowing why.

The three numbers

Width. Half to two-thirds the width of the table. A 42-inch round table takes a 21 to 28 inch fixture. A 40-inch wide rectangular table, the same — measure the width, not the length.

Height. Bottom of the fixture 30 to 34 inches above the tabletop on a standard 8-foot ceiling. Add about 3 inches per additional foot of ceiling. Lower than 30 and people duck to see across; higher than 34 and the light stops feeling like it belongs to the table.

Clearance. Leave at least 6 inches between the edge of the fixture and the edge of the table on every side.

Round table, rectangular table

A round or drum fixture suits a round or square table. Over a rectangular table, a linear fixture almost always wins — it follows the shape and lights the whole surface instead of leaving the ends dim.

If you want a round chandelier over a long table, two smaller ones spaced evenly beat one large one stranded in the middle.

Centring, and the problem nobody warns you about

Centre the fixture on the table, not the room. In a lot of Canadian houses — especially anything with an open-plan renovation — the ceiling box sits where the old dining room was, and the table now sits somewhere else.

You don't need an electrician to fix that. A swag kit or offset canopy repositions the fixture over the table while the wiring stays put. It costs about $30 and it's the single most useful thing to know before buying a dining chandelier.

Dimming is not optional here

A dining room needs bright light for setting the table and low light for sitting at it. Put the fixture on a dimmer.

If you use LED bulbs, use a dimmer rated for LED loads — an LED on an old incandescent dimmer buzzes, flickers, and won't go below about 40%.

Colour temperature: 2700K. Food looks right under warm light and wrong under cool light.

From a Canadian company that eats dinner in the dark five months a year.

Frequently asked questions

What size chandelier for a dining table?

Half to two-thirds the width of the table. A 42-inch round table takes a 21 to 28 inch fixture, with at least 6 inches of clearance to the table edge.

How high should a dining room chandelier hang?

30 to 34 inches from the tabletop to the bottom of the fixture on an 8-foot ceiling. Add roughly 3 inches per extra foot of ceiling height.

My ceiling box isn't over my table. What now?

Use a swag kit or offset canopy to reposition the fixture over the table without moving the wiring. Around $30, and far cheaper than an electrician.

Round or linear over a rectangular table?

Linear. It follows the shape and lights the full surface. A single round fixture over a long table leaves the ends dim.

What colour temperature for a dining room?

2700K. Food and skin both read better under warm light, and the room needs to feel like evening.