EMA Lighting guide to pendants

Pendant light fittings have never been so desirable and with that popularity comes a fabulous choice of styles suiting every room in the home or office, but which fitting is the most suitable for your project? Our helpful guide will answer the most common questions about pendant lights. 

1. Select the right type of pendant to fit the room

Pendant lighting ideas can start with a simple design and subtle buys to all the way to dominating designs that are there to be noticed. It’s common to use lighting as a way to weave in a certain aesthetic or statement style into a space. For instance, single ceiling pendants are great over circular tables, multi-arm pendants create a wide spread of light and pendant clusters make a statement. If you are struggling to choose the right fit, we are always happy to advise you in-store. 

2. Mix and Match the range to create the perfect fixture

We offer a range of lamp shades and pendants that can be put together to create any combination. A single pendant could have a choice of hundreds of shades with the Boulevard Collection. This is a great idea if you like to swap and change up the look of your room often as once the wired lamps holder suspension is installed you can swap your lampshade when ever you want. 

3. Make sure your pendant is hung at the right height

Most of our ceiling pendants come wired with cable. We will always try out best to state the minimum and maximum hanging heights on our ‘product details’ section on the website. When installing the lights, your electrician will be able to pull excess cable through the ceiling rose and trim it to hang at the correct level. For a more traditional effect, some ceiling pendants are supplied with chain suspension, but much the same as a standard cable suspension, the chain cable can be shortened and the links removed from the chain to shorten as necessary.

As a rule of thumb, we recommend that you allow at least 2.15m clearance from the base of your ceiling pendant when hanging so that they can be walked under. For over surfaces, such as dining tables and kitchen islands, we recommend around 60cm clearance from the base of the ceiling pendant and the top of the surface below. 

4. Take care of your light fixtures

Before you begin any cleaning of your light fitting we’d suggest you turn the light off. Safety first, right? Most manufacturers will issue instructions for caring for the lamps but we understand that over times these get lost, hence why we have put together this helpful guide for the most popular materials. 

- Metal pendants are very practical and easy to clean, they just need little more that a light dusting periodically. 
- Solid brass will tarnish gradually over time unless polished, but most brass used in light fixtures are lacquered so that cleaning save for dusting is not required.
- If you have a fabric shade, never wet fabric shades as this can often stain or water mark. We recommend to use the vacuum brush attachment and gently vacuum around the edge of the shade. 
- And last but not least, if you can remove the glass shade from a pendant, you may wash the shade in soapy water, rise and dry. But be careful to put it back securely, as believe it or not, most of glass shades get broken while being cleaned. 

Luckily most other finishing does not require daily cleaning aside from a light dusting. If needed, you can clean your fixtures as a part of the annual spring clean or as and when required. Never pull or apply downward pressure to a light fitting as this may cause stress on the fixings or loosen electrical connections. 

If you have any further questions, feel free to visit us in store or get touch via email.