Chandeliers are installed to provide aesthetic value to a place. For most rooms only one chandelier is enough to provide illumination as well as aesthetic value.
If all the room including kitchen, foyer, bedrooms, dinning room, entryway, have a chandelier each then they are too many. A good practice is to keep a correct balance between some rooms having chandelier while some not. (eg. an open floor foyer can have as many as 3 chandeliers if rest of the rooms are illuminated with other light sources. Furthermore, to find which rooms need chandelier and how many, the sizing, as well as lighting requirement calculation of that room, should be done.
However there are some places where more than one chandelier is required. For example in an open floor plan setting and over a big dinning table. Some people prefer to have two small chandeliers instead of one big chandelier.
How many chandeliers would be too many in an open floor plan?
This is the most commonly asked question about chandeliers as many people want to have a chandelier at the entry way as well as in the foyer as well.Some bigger open floor plans can also have a chandelier in the kitchen.
In a room three chandeliers won’t make sense but in open floor plan type areas, three chandeliers can definitrly be accomodated.
Adding more then 3 chandeliers in a open floor setting would be too overwhelming. Below are some helpful factors according to lighting experts that are important to consider while insatlling chandelier in open floor plan.
Type of chandelier
Three identical chandeliers can be too overwhelming even if installed at different sites within open floor. Therefore adding variety to the chandeliers is important. For example, In entryways and foyers statement chandeliers should be used.
They are the areas which get immediate attention of guests. Such chandeliers should be of bigger size and made out of metal. Most contemporary chandeliers have metal elements in them thst provides a modern yet elegant look to the place.
There are many metals that can be used in a chandelier for foyer and entryway. After installing two chandeliers one at foyer and one at entryway, one more chandelier can be installed in the kitchen as well.
The kitchen chandelier needs to be distinctive to foyer and entryway chandelier. The shape of kitchen chandelier should also be such that, it balances the squarish surroundings in kitchen. A round chandelier or a globe pendant light can be installed in kitchen.
Brightness of the chandelier
Every room has a particular requirement of lighting. As per experts in lighting, a visually demanding area like a kitchen requires an illumination of around 54 lumens per square feet. Whereas, foyers and entryways are not visually demanding and have a lesser lighting requirement of 45 lumens per square feet.
If there are stairs near the foyer then the chandelier in the foyer can be much more bright as lighting the stairwell is also important.
To find out how much brightness the chandelier should emit, simply measure the total square feet area of the particular room and multiply it with the lumen requirement per square feet as suggested by lighting professionals.
In simple words, if kitchen needs 54 lumens per square feet then if the total square feet area of the kitchen is 100 sq. feet. Then the total lighting that kitchen needs would be 100 × 54 = 5400 lumens. Therefore, one chandelier that provides 5400 lumens would be required in that kitchen.
Similarly, foyer needs 45 lumens per square feet. Simply calculate the square feet area of the foyer by multiplying its length and breadth in feet and then multiply the square feet area by 45 to get the lighting required in a particular sized foyer.
Color temperature of the light emitted by chandelier
The color temperature of the light simply means what is the color of light that the light source emits. It ranges from warm white (2700 k) to cool white (7000 k).
Experts suggest that in the kitchen for accurate perception of things daylight white 5000k should be the color temperature of light emitted by light source.
Whereas, in foyers where relaxation is required, warm white color temperature 2700k – 3000k helps to create a relaxing ambiance.
How many chandeliers can be placed over dining table
How many chandeliers can be placed over dining table depends upon how much is the lighting requirement of dining room. As suggested by experts, dining areas needs 30 – 50 foot candles of brightness meaning 30 – 50 lumens per square feet.
To know how many chandeliers would be enough calculate the total square feet area of the dining room and multiply it with 30. Suppose if a dining room is 8 feet long and 8 feet wide then the total square feet area of the dining room would be (8×8 =64 square feet) 64 square feet.
Multiplying 64 with 30 would give the total lighting requirement of the dining room and from that we will get an easy idea about how many chandeliers would be required.
In the above example, the lighting requirement is 1920 lumens. Therefore depending over the length of the dining table, it can have either one chandelier that emits around 200 lumens or two small chandeliers that provides 1000 lumens each.
Having discussed number of chandeliers in terms of brightness lets now discuss how many chandeliers can be installed over dining table depending over the length of dining table.
Simply put, if the dining table is greater than 55 inches in length then it can have one chandelier of 24 inches or width or two small chandeliers of 13 inches in width.
To prevent chandelier from getting too much, if the dining table is close to kitchen, then avoid a chandeliers in kitchen instead prefer a flush mount light source.
Only foyer as well as dinning table are the places where a hanging light fixture is required. Foyers are if sufficiently wide can have a chandelier.
Is it too much if every room has a chandelier ?
Chandeliers apart from providing illumination adds aesthetic value to a particular room. If the size of room is small (<50 sq. feet) then having chandelier there can make the space look tight. In that case there must be a balance between which rooms will get chandeliers and which won’t.
If however, the rooms are sufficiently big (>80 sq.feet) then there can be a chandelier in every room as long as variety is maintained but if there are chandeliers in every rooms then the aesthetics will becomes too obvious.
There should be a balance of some rooms having chandeliers while some having other sources of lights. There are two good way for keeping this balance.
- Using chandeliers in foyers, entryways while using other light sources in rooms.
- Using chandeliers in every room while having some other light source in the hall or foyer.
How many chandeliers should there be in walk in closet
Ideally there should be only one chandelier in walk in closets the reason is chandelier is not required to illuminate the clothes but just to illuminate the space of walk in closet.
To illuminate the clothes, according to Luminaries code 410, other type of light source should be used. The code clearly states that light source should be embedded within the closet so the need of chandelier is minimized and thus chandelier is used there mainly for aesthetics.
In walk in closet , the color temperature of light emitted by chandelier as well as other light sources should also be carefully selected. Some clothes can appear to have a completely different color in a particular temperature of light.
Hence, walk in closet requires lighting which has daylight white (5000k – 5600 k) color temperature. It resembles the natural color of light during day time. This color will ensure that one gets an accurate perception of the colors of clothes within closet.
Can there be two chandeliers in one bedroom?
Rooms with junction box at the center should only have one chandelier whereas rooms with off-centered power supply can have more than one chandelier. However, If bedroom with offcentered power supply is of small size (<120 sq. feet) two chandeliers can take too much space whereas, if the room is big with a total sq. feet area >140 sq. feet two chandeliers can be installed such that they mimic pendant lights.
To look visually pleasant the two chandeliers must be placed together keeping a minimum the distance of two times the width of the individual chandelier. Meaning if the chandeliers are 15 inch wide each then the distance between each chandelier must be at least 30 inches. The best place to install two chandeliers is around the windows or dressing mirror.
