Remember the house we were updating? Reminder here, here, here and here. Well, things have been slow moving over the last year and we were finally getting momentum again right before stay-at-home orders. Which left us with a room that we were turning into a butler’s pantry with holes in the drywall and counter height electrical socket but no counters. That room now is my husband’s new home office so it all worked out as it should.
However, we are trying to tackle what we can while we are home and something tell me we are not the only people taking on home projects during this time. First project up: change out the ugly chandelier over the dining table. Seems like an easy task, however, it proved to be a little more difficult this time around without the ability to go to the stores.
Size of the Chandelier.
There are two ways to determine the width of the chandelier. One way takes into consideration the size of the room and the other takes into consideration the size of the table.
- Using the size of the room: Measure the room length and width. For us it was 10.5 ft. X 13.5 ft. Then add the length and width together to get the width (which is 24 inches in our case). This measurement is best if you have a formal dining room that is a separate room.
- However, if you have a dining room that opens to the kitchen/living space, determining the width of the chandelier is best by measuring the length and width of the table it will go over. Our table is 5 ft. X 3 ft. When using the measurement of the table, width of the chandelier should be one-half to two-thirds the width of the table. Therefore, the width for our table should be roughly 12 inches to 24 inches.
Bet you didn’t know there was a science to finding the right sized chandelier!
The Look.
Now onto the fun part: the style. I use a lot of mixed metals in this home and I fully believe in not having things all match. However, I was there was a lot of steel and a little bit of gold already in the room so I wanted a black fixture. There is always an argument in our home on traditional vs. modern so I knew I needed something that would be a great mixture of both traditional and modern. Also, we needed a chandelier with a chain as that was what we currently had and would make it easier to switch out without patching the ceiling.
The Budget.
Always the least fun of every project. Any project we do around the home, I always want to keep it as inexpensive as possible however I do need to be realistic. Whenever considering the budget, I always outweigh what the home will be. Is it a rental? Is it a primary home, if so, for how long. We are not yet in our forever home so I like to be practical. The chandeliers I have found are between $100 – $200.
Here are a few that would fit the look and the budget:
Sources: one / two / three / four
You will notice that two of these are bigger than the suggested 24 inches. I am comfortable pushing the size of the chandelier a little bit since we have 10 ft. ceilings.
Tell me, which one is your favorite? I am leaning more towards number one. However, it is currently out of stock so now I have to decide if it is worth the way. What projects have you crossed off the list during this time?
Liz is broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.
