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If you’ve been reading our articles, you’re probably aware that chandeliers are making a big comeback. Previously considered stuffy and overly ornate, modern chandeliers come in such a huge variety of styles and finishes. You can find one that fits in each of the trends we identified for the 2020s.

While playing with scale (especially putting oversized fixtures in small rooms) is gaining popularity, it’s often easier to achieve this look with movable fixtures such as oversized lamps, or with pendant lighting whose height can be adjusted in living or bedrooms. Oversized chandeliers, especially in dining rooms, can wind up looking overbearing, out of place, or can even obscure diners’ view of their surroundings and each other.

How then do you choose the right size chandelier for a room, especially a dining room? There are two ways to go about this. The first, and usually the way we recommend approaching this, is to size the chandelier to your table. As a general rule your chandelier should be one-half to three-quarters the width of your table, and one-third to two-thirds its length. There are some easy math equations we provided in this article that are repeated here below for your reference.

Shade diameter should be between 1/3 to 2/3 of the table’s length

Table clearance height of a minimum of 24 inches

Length or diameter of table = 48 inches

48 inches / 3 = 16 inch diameter (minimum)

48 inches / 3 x 2 = 32 inch diameter (maximum)

Let’s say you don’t have a table yet or that you’re looking to upgrade to a new one but want to swap out your lighting first. Another way to determine the correct size chandelier fixture is to fit it to the room itself. You can do this easily by just adding the width and length of the room together. So, if your room is 12’ wide and 16’ long, a 28” chandelier would work perfectly.

Once you have your fixture picked out and installed, the next step, of course, is outfitting it with high-quality SunLake LED bulbs. No matter your style, SunLake has the LEDs you need. From candelabra filaments to decorative globes, SunLake’s LEDs will last for years, save you money, and look fantastic.

One thing you want to avoid when lighting your dining room is light that is too harsh. Installing the chandelier on a dimmer switch is one way to mitigate this, and you’ll find that it’s the dimmer that will probably get the most use in your home. There are also many different kinds of chandelier shades, depending upon the style of chandelier you have. Clear glass will allow the most light to shine though, while frosted glass, and other more opaque materials will cut down on a lot of the glare and will help focus the light up toward the ceiling for softer ambient light, and down at the table to illuminate your plates.