Living Room And Foyer Chandelier Design Guide

Your home is your haven, but while your lighting should be comfortable and suited to your living arrangements, there is no reason you can’t wow guests with statement-making pieces that define your style. The living room, foyer, and entryway are fabulous rooms to flex your design skills and hang striking chandelier fixtures that will give your home an unforgettable edge.

How to Choose A Living Room Chandelier

As you brainstorm living room lighting ideas, don’t discount the drama and style of a living room chandelier. Your living room is very possibly the most versatile and oft-used room of your home; the high traffic and flexibility of this room make it a great place to show off a dashing chandelier. These dramatic fixtures are meant to be seen and hanging one (or more!) in the living room gives this fixture the visibility it deserves. Any chandelier mounted in a living room is sure to be admired and appreciated frequently in your day-to-day life as well as during any hosting events you take on (in the hopefully not-too-distant future!).

Find A Chandelier Style You Want To Show Off

As you narrow your search for the perfect chandelier, consider the overall style and vibe of your living room. For sleek, modern looks, choose minimalist fixtures with metallic finishes, like chrome, polished nickel, and black chandeliers. If traditionalism and glamor are more your speed, your look won’t be complete without a sparkling crystal chandelier. Coastal and boho inspired décor are beautifully accented by natural materials like driftwood and rattan. Whatever your design aesthetic, you can find a chandelier to match—or contrast—your own unique look.

Try our Minimalist Iron Ring Chandelier for an industrial chic living room

Find the Right Chandelier Size

While the spectacle of chandeliers makes them a more obvious choice for large living rooms or formal living rooms, plenty of chandeliers for small living rooms are available to bring big style to petite spaces. To determine exactly what size chandelier you need for your living room, add the length and width of the room together—the answer in inches is the proper diameter of an appropriately sized chandelier. (So if your room is 15’x15’, look for a chandelier that is 30” in diameter or width.) For small rooms, search for mini chandeliers, lanterns, and drum chandeliers, which all tend to be smaller than traditional chandelier silhouettes and make great additions to updated and contemporary rooms.

Try our Gold Leaf and Crystal Chandelier for a glamorous small living room

Determine Your Chandelier Height Requirements

The bottom of the Gallant Garyantes Chandelier hangs 7 feet from the ground

The height of your chandelier will depend on a few different factors that work in tandem to create a comfortable, safe, and stylish room. Follow Shades of Light guide to properly measure and size your living room chandelier. The most important rule to remember is to always mount your hanging fixtures high enough that they do not create a hazard for people passing beneath them. Generally speaking, this means the bottom of your chandelier should never be hung lower than seven feet from the ground—the one exception is if you choose to hang your chandelier over a tabletop, in which case the bottom of the chandelier should fall around 30-36” from the table surface. Following this guideline, if you have standard eight- or nine-foot ceilings, the bottom of your chandelier should fall roughly 84” from the floor. For tall ceilings, add three inches to this number for every extra foot of ceiling height past nine feet. (This calculation can require a few steps! For example, 12’ ceilings are 3’ higher than 9’ ceilings, and so would add an extra 9” of height—3” for every extra foot—to our initial 7’ measurement, for a total of 93” between the floor and the bottom of the chandelier.)

Consider Wattage and Color Temperature

You should also consider exactly the type of lighting you expect from your chandelier. If your room gets lots of natural light and has other light fixtures layered throughout the space, chandeliers that function primarily as décor pieces rather than a main light source bring a big design impact and supplement ambient lighting. If your room is on the dim side, chandeliers with a higher lumen output may be needed. The location of the chandelier will also come into play here—chandeliers hung over sofas should offer ambient uplighting to prevent casting harsh shadows on friends and family sitting beneath them, while chandeliers mounted over tables, desks, or end tables can double as task lighting and can often have lights that shine directly down on the surface below. For the best experience, install your chandelier on dimmers so you can have complete control over the ambiance of your space.

Try our Linear Sprawl Chandelier for a modern chandelier option

Try our Modern Balance Beam Chandelier for a minimalist chandelier option