Pendant lights are a type of ceiling light used most often in kitchens and dining rooms.
It makes sense because the way they drop down, they’re ideal for illuminating rooms and large surface areas beneath them such as dining room tables, kitchen islands and kitchen peninsulas.
While chandeliers are used in dining rooms, pendant lights are becoming are more popular choice because they’re less expensive and not quite as formal.
Below is our extensive photo gallery featuring dining rooms with pendant lighting.
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Photo Gallery
Click images to enlarge.
Benefits of pendant lighting in the dining room
Less expensive than chandeliers: Chandeliers are popular in dining rooms, but you can save with pendant lights and still have beautiful lighting.
- Many designs to choose from: You can match light design with the materials, colors and style of your dining room.
- Distribute light evenly throughout the room: A linear line of three pendants can nicely distribute light throughout the room.
- Dimming capabilities: You definitely want a dimmer with your dining room lights and pendants accommodate this.
- Great for high ceilings: You can drop pendant lights a long way so if you have a tall ceiling, it’s a great lighting solution.
- Specific lighting direction: Pendant lighting can “up-light” or “down-light” so that you get the exact lighting effect you want.
- Casual, but look terrific: The other main options are chandeliers and flush-mount ceiling lights. Chandeliers are more formal while flush-mount ceiling lights are too casual. Pendant lights fall in a happy middle.
- Accommodate many types of bulbs: Pendant lights can come with the ability to accommodate many types of bulbs including LED, incandescent, compact fluorescent and halogen bulbs. Of course, be sure when choosing your pendant light that you look to which type of bulb goes with it. Pendant lights don’t fit all bulbs; instead you can find different pendant lights to accommodate different types of bulbs.
Popular Dining Room Pendant Lighting Styles
- Modern & Contemporary
- Traditional
- Glam
- Industrial
- Coastal
- Cottage/Country
- Rustic
- Tiffany
- Midcentury
- Scandinavian
- French Country
What I find fascinating about light fixtures is the vast amount of choice. In fact, some huge lighting retailers make it possible for you to actually choose and search via interior design style. This way, if you have a rustic dining room design, you can easily narrow your options down quickly by looking for rustic style pendants.
Where to buy Pendant Lights for the Dining Room
Here’s a batch of reputable online retailers who sell pendant lights:
Related galleries:
- Kitchens with pendant lighting.
- Dining Room Photo Gallery (all dining rooms).
- Extensive Ceiling Light Guide
- Pendant Light Buying Guide