8 Elegant Ways to Light Your Dining Room - Pt 1

Renovating your kitchen is an exciting and all-encompassing project. In fact, we often find it extends to your vision of the breakfast nook and/or dining room, as well. One of the biggest issues we've found in dining rooms is poor lighting.

A new light fixture can work wonders on the gloomy eating space. Many dining rooms are wholely unlit, a mysterious architectural choice creating dim wood-paneled rooms. It is also traditional to hang a statement chandelier low over the dining table as a suspended illuminating piece of artwork.

What is the best way to light your dining room, and what style of lighting will you embrace? Let's dive into your options for dining room lighting installations.  

A Classic Chandelier

Dining room chandeliers are often the most extravagant or elegant light fixture in the house. This luxurious fixture is designed to wow guests and bring a sense of formality to shared family dinners. If your dining room doesn't have a chandelier or the chandelier design is old and dated, you can have a new statement light fixture installed in the center of your room, right above where the center of a dining table should go.  

A classic chandelier in the dining room will give you classic a dinner party vibe, ready to host refined guests and impress them with the details of your household and menu. The chandelier designs available today are vastly diverse compared to the chandeliers of twenty to sixty years ago. You can find chandeliers in every fathomable color and design, from classic chandeliers dripping with crystal to chandeliers that are, themselves, now sculptural works of art that happen to hang from the ceiling and provide light.

Glowing Recessed Lighting

Dining rooms tend to favor dim and moody lighting, which makes recessed lighting a perfect and surprisingly classy combination with your dining room design. Recessed and indirect lighting is often hidden behind a distantly spaced crown molding design near the upper reaches of the wall. These lights are hidden halfway behind panels and molding in order to cast their light on the room without bulbs or diodes ever being seen directly.

With just a little clever renovation to the shape and detail of your walls, you can hide recessed lighting for a refined and elegant source of mood lighting in your dining room.

Bring In the Natural Light

Natural light is a wonderful source of illumination when you can bring it into the room. If the windows are in just the right spot, you can invite warm sunlight to pour into your dining room during key times of the day. Hanging mirrors and other glossy, reflective surfaces will increase the power and diffuse reach of the natural light you bring in.

If you really want to open your dining room to the sky, consider having an overhead skylight installed where possible. Skylights are a surprising and luxurious addition to the dining room and often startle guests who expect to see a chandelier. A partial skylight around the upper ring of your dining room can also be uplifting and a lovely source of natural light without altering the roof.

Dripping Pendant Lights

When it comes to the dining room, one pendant light is never enough. Multi-level pendants and pendant sets are the perfect way to make a dining room literally drip with luxury the way your pendants drip from the ceiling.

Pendant lights are more graceful than most types of lighting because they provide droplets of illumination and blown glass shades or artistic baskets to serve as suspended artwork. Should you choose pendant lights for your dining room, you will find an incredibly wide selection of styles, sizes, and cluster designs that will make your dining area feel truly exclusive.

[Continued in Part 2]