Dining Room Lighting Ideas, Tips and More
Dining rooms are where families come together. Whether it’s a casual area adjacent to the kitchen or a separate formal space intended for entertaining, the dining room allows us to enjoy meals together and converse. So no matter how often you use it, your dining space should be comfortable and inviting, allowing family and guests to linger just a bit longer after a meal. While furniture and color palette play essential roles in designing a dining space, one of the best ways to make it more welcoming is through appropriate and attractive lighting fixtures.
But what kind of lighting fixtures does a dining room need? From Victorian to mid-century modern to vintage light fixtures, Van Dyke’s offers a few lighting ideas to complement any period-style home and transform your dining space. Plus, we help guide you on how to choose an adequately sized piece for the space.
Common Types of Dining Room Lighting
Your dining room’s central lighting piece is typically situated above the table. Whether you choose to go with a pendant, chandelier or flush mount may depend on your space’s size, the style you prefer and even how much lighting you need. From there, you can always add sconces or buffet lamps as accents, but first, you need to choose one of these three:
Pendants
Pendant lighting offers a more modern look to a dining room. Pendants come in a variety of sizes and variations, too. You can choose between large statement pendants or even a pair over a dining room table, server or hutch.
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Chandeliers
Chandeliers should be proportional to the dining table they’re positioned over, as well as the size of the dining room itself. Ideally, whether it’s an ornate tiered candelabra chandelier or a long rectangular pendant, it should be roughly one-half to two-thirds the length of the table.
You also need to consider the shape of the dining table. For example, a round drum shade chandelier works more elegantly over a round table. And to stay proportional, a long, narrow style works best over an extended table, too.
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Flush Mounts
Flush mount lighting fixtures are perfect for smaller dining spaces, such as a breakfast nook in a kitchen. They work exceptionally well for dining rooms with average or lower ceilings. A true flush mount light casts a glow downward, providing ample lighting for tables and more. However, if you need more illumination, consider a semi-flush mount light with a bowl or globe that hangs a few more inches, casting light toward the ceiling as well.
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Types of Shades
As you search for dining room lighting, pay attention to the shade or finish that will diffuse the bulb inside. Here are just a few common styles of shades you might come across and their useful properties.
Linen
Linen fabric shades can lend a lovely diffused glow throughout a dining space. It offers a comforting, soothing environment. While you can find various colored linens, stick with an ivory or light beige tone to help cast the most ambient light. However, you can also go bold and dramatic with a black linen shade. Often, these darker shades have a metallic interior lining designed to reflect and cast the light through other openings.
Clear Glass
Lighting with clear glass shades or bulbs offers the most illumination. However, since it’s transparent, you will want to choose a more aesthetically-pleasing bulb. For this style of shade, you can use an Edison-style filament bulb to give it the warm glow it needs without being too harsh.
Opal Glass
For a softly diffused brightness, use an opal glass shade. Opal shades work a lot like linen fabric shades, but often offer a more contemporary or retro flair. Opal glass can also come in a variety of colors, from serene blues to bright reds, that allow you to accentuate or call attention to a space.
Metal
Like shades with a metallic interior, entirely metal shades will focus the light outward. Whether it’s a retro hourglass-shaped sconce that casts light at both ends or a farmhouse lantern that directs light downward toward a table, metal lighting can offer as much or as little light as you need.
Find a lighting fixture you adore with a shade that’s just not quite complementing the space? Swap it out! Unless it’s a custom-made piece, many lighting fixtures and lamps offer shades and globes that can be replaced. Take a look at Van Dyke’s lamp hardware to find shades and globes in a variety of colors and finishes, from opals to copper sheeting, to get the exact look you want. You can even find finials and medallions to add a final touch.
Standard Lighting Sizes and Placements
Before choosing your dining room lighting fixtures, you want to ensure the size and placement works in the allotted space. Selecting a properly-sized chandelier can complete the room and provide adequate lighting without being overbearing. It also helps to know how much wall space is available and needed between flush mount sconces to guarantee a uniform look with your dining room hutch, mirror or other furniture and accessories.
Here are some general guidelines to choose the best size lighting for your dining room space.
Ceiling Lights and Flush Mounts
For ceiling lights, such as chandeliers, pendants and flush mounts, you need to be wary of the overall size and the drop length, or the length you wish your fixture to hang.
Diameter – It’s essential to choose an overall size that is not too overbearing or too minuscule compared to your dining space. So when selecting a central chandelier or pendant above the table, use this general measurement: Add the length and width of your dining room (or breakfast nook) and convert the total into inches. For example, if your dining room is 12x10 feet, you should aim for a lighting fixture roughly 22 inches wide. This is by no means a hard concrete rule, but it should offer a good standard.
Length – For any lighting fixture that is mounted to the ceiling, you will need to ensure it can hang low enough to provide ample lighting, but also not too low that you and family members consistently hit your head. Generally speaking, the bottom of the light fixture should hang approximately 28 to 32 inches from the surface of your table. However, this should also depend on personal preference, ceiling height and even fixture size. A larger fixture (with more bulbs) might work better mounted a few inches higher to distribute the lighting better. But so long as you have a general idea, you can also play with the height and chain length once it’s installed.
Accent Lighting
Accent lighting, such as wall sconces or table lamps, offers a wonderful way to showcase artwork or accentuate architectural elements within a dining space. Whether you choose to mount accent wall sconces above a buffet server or credenza to offer lighting as you entertain guests or prefer to have a few tall table lamps, size and placement are equally important. Here are a few tips to keep in mind for each:
Sconce Mounting Height – When mounting a wall sconce, you want to ensure it’s at eye level. However, in a dining room that invites you to sit most of the time, this makes it a little tricky. Whereas you might mount sconces 62-70 inches at eye level when standing, the eye level when sitting is lower, closer to 60 inches.
When it comes to mounting sconces, you must also take into consideration the surrounding furniture. If you have a tall dining hutch, the sconces will need to be placed to either side. But with a low buffet server, the sconces should be mounted above, inset by a few inches, to create a more uniform look. Also, when mounting above a server or sideboard, you can mount them slightly higher than eye level. The same goes for dining rooms with tall ceilings, making the mounting height more proportional to the space.
Table Lamp Size – Table lamps come in various sizes, so it’s crucial to choose wisely. If you have a smaller dining room, be sure to select a table lamp that is roughly 32 inches in height, assuming it’s placed on a side table.
If you have a larger dining room, buffet style lamps offer an excellent alternative to wall-mounted sconces. Placed at each end of a server, they can flank a mirror or artwork. And with their typical height being around 40 inches, the lampshade or globe lands at approximately eye level, giving the same effect.
As a general rule of thumb, a lamp’s height should be two-thirds of the furniture piece on which it rests. With this in mind, if your server or hutch is taller, smaller table lamps or accent lamps are more adequate, preventing glare as you sit at the nearby table.
Dining Room Lighting That Suits Your Style
Now that you have a general understanding of the types of dining room lighting fixtures and their proper sizes and mounting heights, let’s explore some of the best lighting to fit within specific decor styles.
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Tiered Chandeliers
A tiered chandelier offers a classic look. For a more formal dining room, stay away from crystal-dripping palatial chandeliers and, instead, aim for something more modern with a few glimmering crystals to catch the eye. Think less is more, allowing your chandelier to enhance the room – not overtake it.
For a rustic or country style dining room, look for a tiered chandelier with turned wood candelabra arms in a distressed or weathered finish. Brass and black finishes also provide a traditional look while lending themselves to numerous color palettes.
Linear Chandeliers
Chandeliers don’t always have to be traditional tiered round crystals with candelabras. Instead, choose a linear style that hangs directly over the length of a spacious rectangular dining table. For a modern farmhouse style, look for a lantern-inspired linear chandelier with an open cage or linen shade.
To go mid-century modern, take a twist on the Sputnik-like classic. For a retro vibe, choose a linear chandelier with a warm brass metal frame and sphere-like globes or tubes.
Pendants
Drum pendants can offer an industrial or country flair to your dining room. Think of a vintage metal warehouse pendant or schoolhouse pendant, giving a function and style to an eat-in breakfast nook. A single drop pendant with a smoke glass globe can also be placed above a server or buffet table, lending a retro mid-century vibe.
Sconces
Sconces come in a variety of styles as well. For a traditional period style, choose sconces with scrolled double arms and tapered linen shades to mimic your chandelier. Instead of arms that flare to the sides, you can also find sconces with vertical rustic ironwork and bell-shaped shades that cast down and upward lighting. For a more contemporary look with an Art Deco vibe, stick to a cylindrical opal white shade held by minimal decorative metal trim.
Transform Your Dining Space with Period-Style Lighting Fixtures
Add beautiful, period-style lighting to your dining room to create a dramatic or bright and cheerful space. Whether it’s a modern farmhouse kitchen breakfast nook in need of vintage industrial pendants or a traditional dining room made for formal family gatherings that requires a crystal-dripping chandelier, Van Dyke’s Restorers has you covered! Explore chandeliers, sconces, pendants, buffet accent table lamps and more to transform your dining space.
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