Pendant Lighting
Get the hang of choosing pendant lights
Pendant lighting fixtures are suspended from the ceiling, usually with a chain, and hang freely over an interior space. In most circumstances, pendant lighting is intended to provide ambient light, and can be used both as a decorative accent as well as a practical source of bright lighting.
Advantages of Pendant Lighting
One major advantage of pendant lights is that they provide ambient light without taking up space on your tabletops or counters. They can also illuminate tricky spots, such as kitchen sinks, without getting in the way.
Pendant lights can also provide illumination over a relatively large area and make for excellent task lighting above a desk or work area. The shades that are used to house the actual light bulbs soften the glare of the light through the rest of the room while providing focused light directly beneath the fixture.
You can also get pendant lighting fixtures in an astonishing variety of styles. Pendant lighting shades vary drastically, from the minimalist and ultra-modern to the classically detailed. You can also achieve unique effects by using tinted or colored shades. In this sense, pendant lights have much more flexibility than chandeliers, which are almost always unshaded.
Variations on Basic Pendant Lighting Fixtures
The common variations on your standard pendant light include pendant track lighting, pendant lamps and mini pendant lights. Pendant track lighting is simply an arrangement of pendant lights – usually mini pendant lights – that create a unified rather than isolated effect. (Mini pendant lights are just what the name suggests – pendant lights with atypically small fixtures.)
Pendant lamps are suspended lights with fixtures designed to resemble lampshades. They are often used to create design unity within a room; you can get pendant lamps with fixtures that match the shades of your standing lamps or table lamps.
Homeowners have really warmed up to pendant lights in recent years because they provide the ultimate balance of aesthetics, practically and flexibility. Pendant lights are available across a complete range of price points, so no matter what your budget, you'll be able to put these popular lights to work to make your home a more inviting place to be.
