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Please show me your two story foyer lights

13 years ago

Hi

We are buying a new construction home and are at the stage to provide lights. I am very confused with all the choices put there and would like to get some ideas. Please show me pictures and if you don't mind the name of the brand.

Thank you so much in advance

Vidya

Comments (13)

Adella Bedella
13 years ago
If you go to a lighting store that specializes in lights, you should be able to find someone to help you. Take along a picture and dimensions of the area you need lighted.

My builder and his wife walked around our house with us and made suggestions for the types and sizes of lights we would need. They explained to us that lights came in families. If you find living room or kitchen light you like, you might find a chandelier or other light in that same style or family made by the same manufacturer. The lighting company we used had us walk through the store and also had several catalogs to give us.
brickeyee
13 years ago
If you have any pendant lights in a 2-story high room make sure you have a lift installed for them.

Lights on the wall can at least be reached with an extension ladder, but lights in the middle of the room will be an issue.

A manual lift is just fine, the power ones are complete overkill.
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chloe - yes! One thing to note is that the instructions say you need European size light bulbs, but you don't, just regular chandelier bulbs. I used philips LED (warm white) and they look good. This does not give off the rainbow sparkles of a crystal chandelier like you can see in beekeeperswife's beautiful chandelier. I would say the shadow patterns are a bit more like water/raindrops but not pronounced, in fact the light generally seems pretty even and the strikingness is more from looking at the reflection/refraction in the bulbs themselves. I like the warm rainbow-ey effect of crystal, so if I get a big raise some day I may go for crystal in the dining and move this to the foyer. The quality is mid, about on par for the price. I wouldn't want to look too closely at the chrome after a few years and wouldn't wash the metal parts ever - but I am lazy so chances of me washing my chandelier are slight. It was surprisingly easy to assemble and comes with a few extra bulbs (to assemble it just goes big bulb/little bulb). I would say it's easy enough that I would hang first and then add the bulbs. An electrician installed it and I wasn't home that day, so I couldn't use my usual method of counting swears-per-minute to guage installation difficulty. But no complaints. This post was edited by robotropolis on Wed, Apr 9, 14 at 13:23
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Sorry, I have to disagree with the others and say it's definitely permissible to hang the chandelier where you propose. No one is going to see the chain through the window, and the light should be down where the people are so it can give light to them. Well, I love two-story chandeliers and I LOVE palladian windows more than I can say. And I love big Williamsburg brass chandeliers. I have all three in this house, LOL, and my chandelier is hanging with the tip of its bottom about 8.5' off the floor. The chain is not visible through the window. Two decorators and a very smart lighting store owner have told me this is permissible, so I'm sticking with it. You mention getting a small fixture. How small? You want to make sure it's not too tiny for the space it will be filling. Now that would be bad! LOL. Light store lady and decorator #1 once told me the formula for size vs. space, but I do not remember, sorry.
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vidyaram
Original Author
13 years ago
Hi Brickeyee
Thanks for the suggestion pf manual lift.
Adellabedella,
I like the idea of family lights
gobruno
13 years ago
Here's ours:

It's from Solaria lighting. It's one of my favorite things in the house. We have an electric lift for it. It might be overkill, but it wasn't a ton more than a manual lift. Good luck choosing lighting. It was daunting making our decisions bc the universe of lighting is so vast compared to the other category of items we had to choose.
momto4inor
13 years ago
Wow - that Solaria chandelier is GORGEOUS! Love it love it!!
vidyaram
Original Author
13 years ago
GoBruno, that solaria lighting is absolutely great! Thanks for sharing!
sbgregg
13 years ago
This is the light we have in our foyer. (I don't know how to post photos, so I just have a link to it on a lighting website.) Its pricey, but we LOVE the way it looks.

Here is a link that might be useful: Corbett Vertigo
HeatherDeFaz
12 years ago
Does anyone know where to purchase SOLARIA chandeliers? NOT Solaris. Please feel free to e-mail me at heatherdefazio@gmail.com

Thank you so much!
MichelleDT
12 years ago
You don't mention style of home.

Two story stairway leading to bridge.

Entry:

Contemporary home (but have seen them in transitional as well), both by Bocci. Auto lifts for cleaning.
chicagoans
12 years ago
When you shop for lights it might help to have some inspiration pictures so anyone helping you can get an idea of the style(s) you like. houzz.com is a great source for inspiration. You can select products, then lighting, then search by type (e.g. Chandelier) and narrow down by style (e.g. Contemporary, Traditional, etc.)

It's also a great source for other inspiration pictures, like kitchens.
nini804
12 years ago
Here is ours...it is either Capital or Quoizel.

Oh, poo, you can't see it all...I'll take another pic and post.
nini804
12 years ago
I just took this...now you can see it all.
folkvictorian
12 years ago
Vidyaram, Garden Web has an entire forum devoted to home decorating. You can find it by hovering over the word Forums in the dark green band near the top of this page and then clicking on Home Forums and then Home Decorating. It's an extremely active forum, so you're sure to get lots of answers to most questions. Also, there's a photo gallery available and you can search "foyer lights" or something similar and probably have lots of photos available to see.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenweb decor forum

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