The choice of its suspension
Light is the most important element in decoration. It is important to choose the right type of lighting according to the use you make of a room.
LM5P - Le Mouton à 5 Pattes distributor and lighting designer, is here to advise you and accompany you in your projects.
It is always difficult to choose a suspension. There are suspensions of all sizes, in all styles, in different colours and in different materials. If the choice of the aesthetics of the luminaire is a matter of taste (colour, material...) the size is also a strong point during your choice.
Indeed, the volume that your suspension will occupy in your room must meet certain rules so that the harmony of your decoration is not altered by a luminaire that is too small or too large.
First of all, you need to ask yourself whether your room is suitable for a decorative hanging lamp.
In addition to the light output, the size of your hanging lamp must be in keeping with your decoration and the functionality of your space.
You should take into account three essential points:
1. The height from the ceiling to the floor/furniture
2. The diameter of your suspension
3. The arrangement of several luminaires
How high to position your suspension?
Rooms with low ceilings are generally unsuitable because a suspension system must not obstruct the passage of people or constitute an obstacle that can easily be pushed over if you are not careful.
For this reason, we consider that a suspension system can be installed in a room with a ceiling height of at least 2.5m. It is important to ensure that the bottom of the suspension is at least 2.15m high. This will limit the size of your hanging lamp if you do not have a high room.
If you want to position your suspension above a piece of furniture, the distance differs.
Above a table, you should leave between 65 and 100 cm between the top of the furniture and the bottom of the suspension. It is up to you to decide what is most aesthetically pleasing within this distance.
This places the bottom of your suspension at a height (for an 80cm high table) of between 1.50 and 1.80m, which is quite possible even if your ceiling is relatively low.
If you want to place a hanging lamp above your bedside tables, the distance between the furniture and your lamp should be between 30 and 50 cm.
What diameter should you choose for your suspension?
We now assume that your ceiling is high enough, and only try to estimate the ideal diameter of your luminaire. The aim is to keep the volume of your room consistent with the volume that your decorative pendant will occupy.
We add the length and width of your room (in metres) and multiply this result by 8 to obtain the ideal diameter of your suspension expressed in cm.
An example: You have a room that measures 5 metres by 2 metres:
5 + 2 = 7
7 × 8 = 56
The ideal diameter for your suspension is 56 cm. You should therefore eliminate all suspension models with a diameter of less than 55 cm or more than 60 cm.
What is the ideal spacing between several hangers?
It is estimated that a suspension should not have a diameter greater than 3/4 of the width of your table or bar.
Your table is 1 metre wide, so the maximum diameter would be 75 cm. (This is the maximum diameter, not the ideal diameter)
If your table is long (more than 3 meters), it will be difficult to have a homogeneous lighting on all the surface of the table with only one point of light, we thus direct ourselves to a lighting from 2 or 3 suspensions. Obviously, we will try to find suspensions whose diameter is much smaller than the maximum diameter that you have seen above.
The more lights you have above your table, the smaller the diameter should be.
The layout is just as important as the diameter and height of your suspension. Here again, a little calculation:
Measure the length of the area to be lit and add the diameter of each lamp. Then subtract the result from the length measurement and divide the result by the number of suspensions.
Example:
Your table is 350cm long and you have 3 hangers of 50cm, i.e. 150cm in total.
The unoccupied length of the hangers is : 350 – 150 = 200 cm
We have 3 lighting points, so we divide this length by (the number of lights +1)
200 / 4 = 50 cm
You must therefore maintain a distance of 50 cm from the edge of the table between each of the lights
