Q: Is there a good ratio between the size of the room and the size of the light fitting/chandelier/ceiling light/lampshade? I'm trying to find the right chandelier for a bedroom with 10ft ceiling so I'm wondering if anyone at AT would have some ideas on what size of light fitting might look proportionate.
Sent by Anne
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Well, I know I sure couldn't tell you (being somewhat scale-perception-challenged myself. And I ain't even male!), but I know that Rejuvenation Lighting has a really helpful feature on their website that lets you put different light fixtures up in a room scaled to dimensions you input yourself. There's even a guy standing in the room to give you an idea of relative human scale. Can I put in the link here? Let's try: https://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/bto.html
Lower right hand of the page should show you.
Hope this helps-- I've used this for a few different rooms in my house, to determine if some vintage fixtures I had my eye on would work in them. It really helped me a lot-- and if it helped me, it'll help you!
to determine the width of the chandelier you need for a room, use the the overall room dimensions. add the width and length of the room together in feet and convert that figure to inches to come up with the correct width of the chandelier.
ex: if the room is 10’ x 18’, you would figure the diameter of the chandelier by the following formula:
10 + 18 = 28 (Therefore, a 28" diameter chandelier would fit the room proportionately.)
also, the higher the ceiling, the taller the chandelier should be so that it will look balanced in the room.
another rule of thumb is to allow 2 ½" – 3" per foot of room height to determine length of the fixture. so, a room that has an 8’ ceiling can use a chandelier that is approximately 20" to 24" in height. If the ceiling is 10 feet high, than a light fixture that is 25" to 30" would look more appropriate.
hope that helps!
In a bedroom, I feel that the most important issue is that the fixture be hung high enough or be small enough that no one hits their head on it. With 10ft ceilings, you can probably get away with an over-scale fixture and it would look amazing. Not much help, but some thoughts.
I agree with @karen at number4designs, but you can add a bit more (up to 20% of her dimensions, so 28+5 = 33) since you have 10 ft. ceilings.
As far as height goes: I'd try to keep it high, so it doesn't hang any lower than 6' 6" to accentuate the height, and give some clearance underneath.
I agree with @karen and ElectricKatie. I would also add to this that you should consider visual weight. The picture above has a lot of visual weight because of the dark color and heavy lines. You could probably add a larger dimension than a room would normally allow if the lines are very thin and the color muted or subdued.
ThatKris...That website you suggested is fantastic!! I have been looking for something along those lines. Thank you!! And thank you to the others who explained how to figure out what size fixture to use. I have been wondering that myself!!
Thank you for the great help. That website looks great, I'll try it, try Karen's calculations and report back :)