Pendant Lighting

Create Depth with Pendant Lighting

Explore how you can transform your home with pendant lighting. This unique lighting format lends a modern, sophisticated touch to any room. With styles ranging from industrial to farmhouse and everything in between, there's a pendant light that's just right for your home. Use these lamps to create depth, divide a space or denote a statement piece in your home.

What Are Pendant Lights?

Pendant lights are lamps that mount to the ceiling. Unlike flush-mounted lights that stay close the ceiling, these hanging light fixtures dangle a downward-pointing light from a cord or chain.

The light is usually diffused by a shade or, in instances of post-modern styles, like bare Edison bulbs, glows outward horizontally. To create a spotlight effect, you can choose a drum-like shade in an opaque or heavy material, like painted brass.

• Pendant lamps may have different styles of shades. Look for globes, lanterns, domes or hurricane styles.
• Usually, you control these lights from a wall switch at an easy-to-reach level. They're hard-wired into your ceiling for a semi-permanent lighting solution.
• Pendants are known for their modern drama. Although they're considered an essential in a contemporary kitchen with an island or bar, hanging lights look amazing over dining tables and as statement lamps in a living room, too.

Place Your Lights For Maximum Impact

How you place your pendant lighting changes the feel of each room. While the traditional layout of a single row of three or four always looks great, you can play with placement to create a unique effect in your home.

• Try a cluster of pendants. You can either shop for a singularly mounted light that contains multiple lamps at different levels, or you can hang single styles in a staggered or grouped arrangement.
• Hang a single light over an accent table with notable decorative objects or to highlight a group of seats in a living room.
• Line a hallway with pendants to keep the hall clear. If you use a dimmer switch, you can modify the mood so that a long section of your home isn't always at maximum brightness.

Creative Takes on Pendants

Shopping for pendant lighting is fun because of all the different styles available to you. Enjoy interesting silhouettes and finishes.

• Stars create drama and point soft light in multiple directions. Some star shapes are directional and others are bloom-like. These work best in rooms with other brighter lights for reading, serving food or passing through rooms.
• Box chandeliers lend an elegant tone to a room. They're not as formal as traditional chandeliers, but they still have an expansive feel.
• Lantern candelabras are the rare pendant to point light upwards. They're perfect for rustic homes or farmhouse decor.

Mix-and-match pendant styles across your home for a fresh look that modernizes the whole space.