Choosing the Right Light Fixture for Your Home

In an effort to get a well collected or designer look in your home, our Creative Director, Andy Friesen, has shared some tips on how to choose the right lighting fixtures.
First and Foremost, Mix Your Light Fixtures.
Don’t stick to the same lighting collection. Often spec homes are built with lighting packages that are all part of the same line. Instead, picking pieces that have something in common but are not the same will give you more of a custom look.
This leads us to his next tip…
Second, Coordinate Your Lights.
This means choose lighting pieces that complement each other.
Here’s an example of coordinating lights: if over the kitchen island you put 2 milk glass globe pendants with an antique brass chain, then you would want the kitchen table fixture to have an element that coordinates them but remains different, such as a black dome pendant with chain and brass-like interior. Now the two lights are linked by the black and brass colors but are different by not repeating the glass globe.
* Even though globe lights are popular right now, don't use them for every light fixture.
Avoid doing things that are too much alike and more linked by a common denominator. This will give you a well-collected look that is coordinated without looking matchy-matchy.

Pick the Fixture For the Space.
Scale is so important when picking the right light for the room. Make sure you are buying large enough because often those lighting collections are too generic in size.
You will want to take in consideration the size of the room, ceiling height, and if you will be doing single or multiple light fixtures (ie. 2 pendants over an island).
* PRO TIP
A pro tip Andy uses to get the right size of light for a room is to add the length and width of the room and use the result as the basis for the light's diameter in inches. For example to figure out a light for a 12' x 15' room: 12+15=27. A 27 inch diameter light should be the MINIMUM size to consider for that room size (and if you know Andy, he always says bigger is better when it comes to lights).
A great way to get started is with a Pinterest board to bring all your lighting picks in one space to see how they look together.