Need advice on size of school house pendants

15 years ago

I posted last week on school house lighting and the responses were great. We have been looking at rejuvination and schoolhouse lighting. However, we are still having trouble with the size of the lights. We have yet to hang a balloon although we will try this tomorrow. With that being said, any other advice on the size of the pendants will be real helpful.

We are dealing with a peninsula that come out 69 inches from the stall with a 12 inch depth cabinet on the wall. The peninsuala has an overhang for 3 seats but we can squeeze a fourth in there just under the cabinet.

With that being said, we are working with approximately 57 inches of an exposed peninsula. We also have to account for the doors of the cabinet when hanging the lights.

Our question is this, we want to hang 2 pendant lights. We think that 12 inch school house pendants will be too big. We found a pendant as small as 5 inches but it will require a non standard bulb.

Does anyone have thoughts on possible sizes. We have found several 9 inches and a couple of 8 inches. Will these work for us?

I know a lot has to do with preference but I guess we would like some opinions and experiences as this site has been so helpful throughout our renovation.

Thanks in advance for your help

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Comments (8)

pcjs
15 years ago
12 inch is huge and that is what I returned.

We have the 9 inch - painted but it is a ceiling fixture, I think it is the Bryant... just the right size but not as a pendant - you could get one see how it works, then get the other.

Both company's will allow you to exchange - did with both to get the sizing right, but 12 is really really really big but great if you have a big house/kitchen.
pcjs
15 years ago
If you are looking for ORB - Schoolhouse is not a true, ORB, so use Rejuvination - otherwise, both company's are great - we have a Schoolhouse (had gift card) and theirs is very very light... but it's cute for the washer/dryer.
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I was loooking for the same thing and ended up with this shade: http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com/shades-detail.asp?ShadeID=185&all=0 with this fixture http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshowC162/templates/selection.phtml?n=v&custom_code=jxuf&tab=specs But you have to get incandescent bulbs -- no CF. Good luck.
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erikanh
15 years ago
I can sympathize with you! Choosing the lighting for my island has been one of the toughest decisions yet!

This week my electrician did all the wiring for the kitchen. Beforehand, I had told him that I was planning to purchase three pendants that would be 8 to 10 inches wide to go over my 12 foot island. I showed him where the middle pendant should line up with the center of the windows and where the other 2 should line up toward the ends of the windows.

I came home and could see right away that he had placed the boxes way too close together. The spacing would have been fine if I were using mini-pendants, but not for the size fixtures I'm getting. My contractor had to remove 2 sheets of drywall so the electrician could move the boxes on the ends.

The balloon trick was the only thing that helped me figure out the appropriate size and spacing for my pendants. I had to be careful because our ceilings are only 90 inches high and DH is 6'1". I know a lot of people like to hang their pendants low, but the idea of having to peer around them every time someone is standing across the island from me is not at all appealing.

I love those schoolhouse pendants. I'm still trying to choose between and 8-inch schoolhouse pendant and a 10-inch bell-jar shaped pendant.

Good luck!

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pluckymama
15 years ago
Our electrician goofed as well and we ended up with ceiling dry wall repairs to move boxes. How long are you going to go with your pendant stems with that height of ceiling?? Have you decided about your countertops?
gailrolfe
15 years ago
brown126, we just bought lights, both ceiling mounts and pendants, from Schoolhouse lighting and went through the same agonizing decisions. I found the folks at Schoolhouse, particularly Oliver, to be very very helpful in helping me choose the right sizing. And also, beware that pendants from Schoolhouse are not returnable since all are made to your specifications. They actually helped me choose appropriate shades also as the ones I had chosen would not work with the GU24 bulbs I needed (of course, it would be nice if the website were a bit more helpful in that regard but at least they make up for it over the phone). You might give them a call and get some feedback. I could never get the balloon trick to work just right but I did mock up some paper plates and ribbons that helped a bit but I also read some hints somewhere that suggested a floor-to-bottom-of-shade height over our peninsula of around 72-74" and the pendants over cabinets somewhere closer to 6.5 feet or 7 ft if tall folks would be walking under them. I used those as guidelines when I was playing around with the paper plates and came up with numbers that worked for us pretty much in those ranges. Don't know if any of that helps but just thought I'd share our experience. We do like the schoolhouse pendants which we got in ORB and think they look very nice--at least in the box. They aren't hung yet....
alaskangirl
15 years ago
One thing I did today that was really easy was to hold up-side-down some bowls of different diameters. If you got someone to help you with this you could really step back and look. I was surprised just how big the different bowls looked and it gave me an idea of how the pendants would look at different heights.
amck2
15 years ago
We did the balloon trick in planning how to hang our schoolhouse lights. It was most helpful in trying to figure out how high/low they should hang.

As far as diameter, we didn't want them to look like mini pendants, nor did we want them to be too large in scale (we have 2) over the island. In the end we went with 9 inchers. The folks at Rejuvenation Hardware were very helpful in helping us figure that out when we provided them with ceiling height/island size, etc.

One advantage of schoolhouse lights over ones we have in another kitchen is that with the base of the lamp covered you get good lighting but none of the glare of a bare bulb overhead when you're sitting at the island or peninsula.

I'm excited for you. You will love them!
Circus Peanut
15 years ago
I have two 8-inch schoolhouse pendants over my 80" sink run, and they are great - don't look 'mini', but aren't too big either.

Need advice on size of school house pendants

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pcjs

pcjs

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