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Maintaining a home

How to get pendant light fittings installed

19 October 2018

This article has been written by hipages, a platform that provides a better, smarter way to connect you with trusted, local tradies to get your home improvement job done well.

Updating the lighting in your home can be one of the most cost-effective and transformative ways to upgrade your home. From concrete to copper, wicker to wood, pendant lights have been bang-on trend for home interiors for a few years – and there’s no sign of that ending. Chosen to the right scale and placed correctly in your home, they can really give a lift to your home’s interior.

Choosing your pendant lights

Pendant lights come in a range of sizes and colours, and can range in price from under 50 bucks to several thousand dollars each. Replicas of many high-priced designer pendant lights can be purchased online for about a tenth of the price of the real deal. Some large feature pendant lights can be pretty weighty, so before you go out and purchase a huge clay bead chandelier call in an electrician to check that your ceiling will take the weight. Of course, if you’ve purchased an older home that you’re planning to renovate and pendant lights are just a part of your overall new lighting scheme, you should get an electrician in first to check all the wiring and help you plan for additional sockets (older houses invariably don’t have enough of these for modern gadget-heavy living), dimmer switches and more.

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Where to place pendant lights

Before you decide on which pendant lights you’ll want, you need to decide where to place them for best effect. Then you can decide on the sizes and materials that would best suit.

A large living area, for example, could have a big feature pendant light in the centre of the ceiling or placed hanging low in a corner (where no-one will bump into it), or a cluster of pendants could look effective.

Classic places to hang pendant lights are over the kitchen counter facing an open plan living/dining space – usually multiple pendants hung in a row at the same height – and over the dining table. A cluster of pendant lights also makes a spectacular feature in an entry or at the top of a stairwell.

Pendant lights are also becoming popular in the bedroom. Placed over the bedside tables, they save surface space otherwise taken up by bedside lamps. They also allow for smaller bedside tables to be used in bedrooms where space is tight.

A pendant light or a cluster of pendants can also bring a lacklustre bathroom to glamorous new life. Be sure, however, that any lighting purchased for use in a bathroom is suitably rated for use in wet areas.

Scale and height

Once you have decided where you are placing your pendant lights you are ready to choose from the exciting range on the market. Consider the scale and shape that would work best in each situation. A huge wicker ball might look amazing in a high-ceilinged living area, three or four metal shades over the kitchen counter and small, delicate glass pendants over the bedside tables. Take your time and have fun choosing.

Getting the hang of it

Once you have chosen your pendants, you’ll also need ceiling fittings and enough flex cord to hang them all. Flex is now available in a range of bright colours as well as plain white, so you can make quite a feature of it. Pendants where the bulb is visible, such as cage lights, will also demand attractive, decorative bulbs. You’ll find an array of these to choose from at your local lighting or home improvement store.

When it comes to hanging your pendant lights it’s vital to get the height right. Too high and they will not look ‘right’, too low and they could be bumped accidentally. Make sure you’re in attendance while your electrician is fitting the lights to ensure they look just right. This is especially important if you’re hanging several pendants in a row and they need to be evenly spaced and exactly level with each other to achieve the right effect.

Once your electrician is finished, stand back, turn on the lights and be amazed at how different your room looks and feels thanks to its amazing new pendant lighting.

 

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