Educational Center

world right now, refusing to stay in the

kitchen where they’re used to hanging

out.

If you haven’t tried pendants

because you’re not sure how to use

them, fear not. The American Lighting

Association offers

some tips on selecting and placing

pendants in your home.

The two most common mistakes,

they say, are placing pendants at the

wrong height and not installing

enough of them.

“Our relationship to most pendants

occurs when we are standing up.

Therefore, each should be mounted so

the bottom of the shade is approximately

66 inches above the floor. At

that height, it is possible to look across

the room below the pendants while

they are low enough to create a dramatic

focal point,” said Joe Rey-

Barreau, education consultant for the

American Lighting Association and an

associate professor at the University of

Kentucky’s School of Interior Design.

“If the shade is not very deep and

there is seating at the kitchen island or

peninsula, it might be necessary to

install the pendants a few inches lower,

say 60 inches above the floor,” Rey-Barreau said.

The general recommendation is to place one

pendant at every 2 feet of counter space.

Now, comes the really hard part: How do you choose

your pendant?

“This mini pendant stuff is a hot trend,” said

Gilbertson, manager of Lighting Design by Wettstein’s

and a certified lighting consultant with American

Lighting Association. “These have exploded.”

You can get them small or large, as a single or in

multiples, and in every color imaginable. And you

don’t have to just use them over the kitchen island.

“They’re used all over the place,” Gilbertson said.

“The most common location you’ll find them is over

an island in the kitchen, and that’s where we use a lot

of them,” he said, often pairing them with a matching

pendant over the kitchen sink or in a breakfast

nook. “But a lot of times we’ll use them in a

bathroom area. What’s been popular are mini

chandeliers called chandilettes with three or

four bulb fixtures.”

What has helped pendant lighting catch on,

Gilbertson said, is the easy retrofit. If you have

track lighting, you can attach your pendants to

it and not cut any new holes in the ceiling.

“This retrofit stuff, it’s remarkable the

things you can do with track lighting,” he said.

“In some cases, it’s an easy fix. It’s cool stuff.”

When it comes to selecting the type of pendant

you need, style isn’t the only criteria. The

amount of light it provides also is important.

The best advice is to visit your local lighting

showroom for guidance. Your lighting consultant can help determine

which light source — halogen, LED or compact

fluorescent — is ideal for your kitchen or any

other room in the house.

But if you have your lights on a dimmer

switch, forget CFLs, Gilbertson said.

“It can heat up and cause a fire. CFLs are a

wonderful energy choice,” he said, just not

with a dimmer switch.

Glass is the most common material used for

pendants, followed by spun metal.

“If the pendant will be providing the

general lighting for the space, it is important

to select a shade that is translucent but not so

dark that it prevents light from emanating

horizontally,” Rey-Barreau said. “Another

important consideration is that the bulb

outline should not be readily visible —

especially if it’s a compact fluorescent.”

Gilbertson said pendants can be used

almost anywhere.

“The latest thing on pendants has been

going to the drum shade look.We have those

hanging over our front counter. There’s a lot of

manufacturers who now make them.”

If there’s one thing he knows, it’s that the

future of lighting will just keep getting

brighter, Gilbertson said, and manufacturers

will keep coming up with new styles to light up

our lives.

“Things change, sometimes for the

better, sometimes not. I’ve been at this for 37 years