Chandelier Buyer's Guide

When you think of chandeliers, you might picture cartoonish dollar signs — they’re often associated with the wealthy– but, in fact, you can find a wide range of affordable chandeliers on the market. Chandeliers come in all types of styles, sizes, and price points. Just about any consumer that’s considering a new light fixture for their home can find one that’s within their price range and matches the style of their space. All you have to do is look.

If you like the idea of adding some classy style to your home with a new chandelier, we can help. This buyer’s guide will take you through the main types of chandeliers available and factors you should consider in your search.

Types of Chandeliers

Chandeliers are far from basic in style. Some are fancy, like those you may picture accentuating a palace ballroom. Some are more modern and offer a simpler style. Others provide an old-fashioned look with candelabras updated for the modern era to be electric. In other words, when it comes to buying a chandelier, you’ve got plenty of options. Here are six of the most common types of chandeliers you will be choosing from.

Chandelier with Shades

If you’ve been looking at other types of lighting fixtures, then you’ll know that “lights that come with shades” is a common category, regardless of the type of fixture you're looking at. Chandeliers are no different.

Shaded chandeliers are available in a wide array of colors and styles, but in all cases, they do the double duty of adding a visual element to the chandelier while also somewhat dimming how much light it puts out. If you want softer lighting from your chandelier, or simply like the look of a chandelier with shades, then this is a category worth considering.

Tiered Chandeliers

If your ceiling as are high enough to safely install one, a tiered chandelier can add a majestic look to your space. Like it sounds, a tiered chandelier will have multiple levels of lights. Perhaps the most common, are chandeliers that have two tiers of lights. However, it’s not hard to find a chandelier that offers three, four, or five tiers of lights. 

Candelabra Chandeliers

Many of the chandeliers of the past held candles. Candelabra, or candle style chandeliers, borrow this idea to keep a classic, old-fashioned look, while updating the technology behind it to add safety and convenience. You can get the historical look of a candle-filled chandelier by simply flipping a switch (and without burning your house down).

Crystal Chandeliers

When you picture fancy, sparkling chandeliers from movies or the homes of the wealthy, the crystal chandelier is likely what comes to mind. Many crystal chandeliers will be costly, as you’d expect, but you can actually find plenty that fall in a reasonable price range for customers looking on the lower end of the chandelier price spectrum.

Drum Chandeliers

Drum chandeliers have a shade around the light or lights in the shape of a drum. This technically makes them a subset of the chandeliers with shades category, but they’re popular enough on their own to mention separately. The shades you’ll see on drum chandeliers can come in a number of different materials and often offer some extra design to the overall effect of the chandelier.

Mini Chandeliers

Chandeliers are often thought of as something grand, which in our imaginations usually also means large. If you want the elegance of a chandelier in one of the smaller spaces in your home though, you can find plenty of options in the mini-chandelier category. Mini chandeliers are available in a wide array of style types and at many different price points, so don’t let size stop you from going after the light fixture of your choice.

Factors to Consider When Buying a Chandelier

Chandeliers come in so many different shapes, sizes, and materials that figuring out how to narrow your search down can be overwhelming. To give you an idea going in of just what you can expect when you set out to find a chandelier, here are some of the main factors you should keep in mind in your search.

Style

The main reason to buy a chandelier is because they’re beautiful. That means that style is top of mind for most customers considering a chandelier. In addition to finding a chandelier that you consider beautiful, you also want one that fits the style of your space. If most of your rooms have a simple style, then an elaborate crystal chandelier that looks great in a picture could end up feeling out of place once hung in your home.

There are chandeliers with more low-key looks, ones that have a modern feel to them, and even antler chandeliers for those who want to add an accent to a rustic space. A chandelier doesn’t have to include glittering crystals to be elegant and classy, you have tons of style options to choose from–there’s a chandelier for every taste.

Cost

Don’t assume you’ll be priced out before you start looking. Especially large and fancy chandeliers can cost thousands of dollars, but there are many lovely chandeliers on the market that fall more in the $100-$250 range.

The cost of buying a chandelier is often more complicated than the list price though. Chandeliers can get pretty heavy, so if you’re buying one online, you have to consider how much shipping will add to the order. And if you’re hiring a professional to install your chandelier–which is likely a smart move for all but the most skilled DIYers–then you should consider installation costs as well.

Most of those added costs will be associated with any type of lighting you go with though, so if you like the idea of a chandelier but are wavering due to costs, keep in mind that you’ll likely be paying for installation for any type of light you buy and might as well go with the one you really want.

Size & Weight

Before you take the step of purchasing a chandelier, it’s important to know the dimensions of the space you plan to put it in. Start by measuring the height of the ceiling. One recommendation is to choose a chandelier that has three inches of height for every foot of space. That doesn’t necessarily have to be treated like a hard and fast rule, but it can give you a standard to go off of in your search.

You also want to consider the width. If it will be hung in a living room or bedroom, you have some flexibility to work with, but probably still want it to be smaller than a third of the width of the room. If your plan is to hang it over a dining room table, then you should make sure the width of the chandelier is smaller than the width of the table.

Keep in mind the heights of the people in your home in determining how high to hang it. If it’s too low, you risk people hitting their heads on it–there should be a good amount of space between people’s heads and the lowest point on the chandelier. If you hang it very high, cleaning it and replacing bulbs may be a pain.

More than most lighting fixtures, chandeliers are often heavy. If you purchase a heavy chandelier, that will affect your shipping costs, how tricky installation is, and the risks involved in trying to install it yourself. No one wants to be in the wrong place when a badly installed chandelier falls from the ceiling, so be aware of the additional issues that come with purchasing these gorgeous fixtures.

Room & Placement

A chandelier can work in almost any room, depending on the overall style you’re going for in the space. With a large selection of mini-chandeliers on the market, hanging a chandelier in your bathroom is even an option with damp or wet location rated chandeliers. But you do have to be careful to pick the right chandelier for the right space. A full sized chandelier in your bathroom would likely look ridiculous, if you could even get it to fit. And a mini-chandelier over your dining room table only makes sense if your table and dining room are on the smaller size, or if you decide to hang multiple mini chandeliers in the space.

To figure out which chandelier makes sense in the particular room you have in mind, take into consideration these three factors:

• The Style of the Room – Do the colors and design of the chandelier you’re considering match the overall space?

• The Amount of Lighting Needed – The big appeal of chandeliers is that they’re beautiful, but they also have a practical job to do. Do you need the chandelier to put off lots of light, or can it simply do the job of adding a little ambient light to the setting?

• The Size of the Room – A massive chandelier in a small room is overkill, plain and simple. On the other hand, one mini-chandelier won’t do much for larger spaces like living rooms. Make sure the size of the chandelier is appropriate to the space available.

While these factors will limit your options a bit, don’t worry–you’ll still have lots of chandeliers to choose from even after limiting by style, size, and the amount of light emitted.

Type of Bulb

Every type of light fixture needs its bulbs. Many chandeliers will require several. Consider the type of bulb your chandelier requires. Will it be easy to replace when the time comes? Is it expensive? Does it let off enough light for your needs? How does it fare in terms of energy use? LED and CFL bulbs fare the best on the last point. They’ll save you money each month on your energy bills and you won’t have to worry about replacing them for a while.

Ease of Installation

Whether you’re aiming to install it yourself or hiring someone to do it, a chandelier that’s difficult to install will cost you in either time or money. If you buy an expensive chandelier that’s heavy, you don’t want to drop it and ruin it before you ever get to enjoy it, so for some types of chandeliers you may want to call in a professional regardless of your typical DIY tendencies just to be safe.

There are more factors to consider when installing chandeliers than with most types of light. How high you hang it will have an influence on how you experience the light (and whether any guests will bump into it). Heavy chandeliers require more careful installation to ensure they’ll never fall down. This is a process you need to get right, so make sure it’s done well when you do it.

Ease of Care

Let’s not parse words here, chandeliers can be a royal pain to clean. How frequently they need to be cleaned and how difficult they are to clean properly will depend on a number of factors, including the materials they’re made of and how intricate the design is. If you buy a beautiful chandelier with tons of small pieces, expect to pay for that beauty in cleaning time.

Pay attention to any cleaning instructions that come with your chandelier. When you make the investment in the perfect chandelier, it’s worth taking the time to take proper care of it and keep it in good condition so you can enjoy it for many years to come.

The Bottom Line

Any home can be suitable for a chandelier as long as you choose the right chandelier for your home’s space and style. Chandeliers may have once been reserved for the wealthy, in large, expansive homes, but today they’re accessible to all homeowners who like the idea of adding a little extra class or elegance to their space. Even if you’re on a budget, there’s a very good chance that you can find a chandelier you love. Just be sure to have an idea of what you want going in to the search and spend some time browsing to get a full view of your options.