Lighting Rules to Follow and Break with Capital City Lighting

We were lucky when we moved into our new house in March that there wasn’t anything urgent we had to change or fix. But since day one I’ve never been happy with our lighting. Our house was built in the early 90s, so all our chandeliers and fixtures look outdated and could seriously use a refresh. See below!

That’s been my ONE thing I want to change throughout the house, but it’s always seemed a little overwhelming.

Lucky for me, my friend Bridget Tate of Capital City Lighting is an expert when it comes to lighting design!

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READ: MEET BRIDGET TATE OF CAPITAL CITY LIGHTING

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Today, Bridget is back on the blog sharing her best tips about lighting and fixtures so you can transform your home into something more modern. We’re covering lighting rules — and how to break them! We’re covering scale, height, bulbs and a few extra tips.

Following The Rules:

If you’re thinking of adding a chandelier to your house, the common way to do it would be taking the length and width of the room, converting it to inches and adding those inches together to get the diameter of what your chandelier should be.

For example… If your room is 12×10 feet, that would be 12 inches + 10 inches, meaning the perfect sized fixture for your room would have to be 22 inches in diameter.

Whenever you’re adding a drum shade (lamp shade) to a room, Bridget says stick to the rules because drum shades are larger and fill a lot of visual space!

BREAKING THE RULES:

If you want to create a unique feel to your room, oversized fixtures will definitely do the trick!

If you’re trying to find an open fixture for a larger room, you can choose a generally larger fixture that will stand out and fill more space. This can add more dimension to the space.

FOLLOWING THE RULES:

One of the main rules of hanging heights for lighting is to NEVER hang a fixture lower than 7 feet from the floor. This applies to fixtures you would walk under in main rooms and not to dining or island fixtures.

When it comes to a fixture above a dining table, the bottom of your fixture should be about 5 ½ to 6 feet off of the ground.

BREAKING THE RULES:

If you have 8 foot ceilings and your 5’2” (ahem ahem) go ahead and hang that foyer light a little lower.

For instance, Bridget’s hangs at 6’10” from the floor in her home. She wanted some razzle dazzle, and it’s tough to find that at 12” total.

FOLLOWING THE RULES:

Bulbs have the potential to make or break the vibe in any room.

One of the main rules we learned from Bridget was that a round bulb can make any fixture seem more modern or updated.

So rather than getting rid of a fixture in your home, you could simply change the shape of the bulb to create a different feel in the room.

BREAKING THE RULES:

As far as bulbs and lighting go, a fun way to shake things up would be to add a flesh mount!

Flesh mounts attach directly to the ceiling and they take up more room than a traditional bulb.

In other words, they fill up the visual space nicely!

Bridget let us in on a couple of her favorite things she’s seen lately in the world of lighting.

Something that people have been doing to change up the look of their house’s exterior is implementing an indoor fixture.

By adding an interior fixture outside, it can create a more modern and if you will “fancy” feel.

Another thing that helps to fill space and brighten up a room is adding sconces.

Sconces come in so many fun shapes and sizes these days that it can really help to transform your room!

Bridget told us that she removed a lot of artwork in her room and instead added in sconces. By doing this, she said the room looked a lot more open and had a happier feel overall.

For more lighting design inspiration check out Bridget at Capital City Lighting and on Instagram at @ccitylighting!