Should Lights match other finishes in kitchen?

16 years ago

I am looking at lights for a pendant over my sink and a ceiling fixture for the center of the room (don't really need that but it will cover where the old ceiling fan was). It seems every one I pick out that I like is made by Murray Feiss. Anyway, My kitchen cabinets are:

Those are quartz samples I am considering, but am leaning more towards granite now. Anyway, I was planning to do satin nickel or stainless steel for the faucet and nobs, probably a stainless sink, although depending on the granite color I might upgrade that to a granite sink, and I was planning to do a brushed nickel or similar finish on the lights. However, some of the ones I like are:

Love this pendant:

But not so much the matching ceiling fixture:

Like this ceiling fixture:

The matching pendant is nice but I don't like quite as much as the previous one:

This one is more like what I planned, until I saw some of the others, but does not come in a brushed finish:

It doesn't have a matching ceiling fixture, but I thought of these:

or this one is a little small (11") but I like it:

What do you think? Would I have to change from satin nickel or stainless steel to ORB to use those other fixtures? I don't think ORB would have as much nice contrast as the silver fishes on the dark cabinets for the nobs and many of the faucets I like don't come in ORB or don't fit the budget in ORB. I know they are all different styles, but I like different styles and would be comfortable going traditional or a little more modern/transitional. Oh, maybe that square pendant is just a little too chunky. Bother!

What do you like, should I mix finshes, or do I really need to keep them all the same?

Sue

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Comments (4)

lisa_sandiego
16 years ago
I personally feel that the metals should all match.
I like all your choices. I didn't order my chadalier and pendants til just last week, after the cabinets and appiances were installed. I couldn't figure out of they should match or just coordinate. I finally ended up going to a specialty lighting store for help. 2 hours and multiple catalogs later, I had it done.
Good Luck,
Lisa
glad
16 years ago
i think it is okay to do the orb since it will basically match - or blend with - your cabinet and counters. especially the ceiling lights. i like murray feiss,too, and will probably get the one in the link; it comes in orb, too. it's pretty plain, but close to the ceiling, i'm just looking for plain and simple...

Here is a link that might be useful: Murray Feiss Gravity
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raehelen
16 years ago
I think it's best to find lighting that you love, and work the knobs around you decide to pick. But that may just be cuz the first thing I bought for my kitchen was the chandelier, and then everything else had to go with that! Hee hee.

Have you made your initial picks from a lighting store? Once I had the starting point of my chandelier (which I bought at an online auction)- I made several trips to lighting stores, and went back and forth over the pendant lights until I finally 'created' the perfect ones by combining features from a catalogue- if you tell the lighting expert what you're looking for they may find the right catalogue for you- surprising how well they seem to know their suppliers/designers.

I see the nickel as an excellent choice with your colours, and if you went with your squared fixtures, there are lots of square/rectangular knobs you could choose from.
sue_ct
Original Author
16 years ago
I have been to 3 lighting stores, one twice because they gave me the wrong type of recessed lights. None of the pendants really struck my fancy until I saw the first pendant in my OP, but it doesn't come in a silver type finish and I am not fond of the ceiling fixture that matches. I saw two ceiling lights I kind of liked, the smaller square one that is the last photo in my OP, and this one:

Neither one has a matching pendant. This one is discontinued but is still available. When I realized that all of them were Murray Feiss, I looked on the designers web site since the lighting store said they would order any fixture I wanted as long as it was a brand they carried.

Another of the lighting stores didn't have what I was originally imagining but offered to make it for me. They haven't gotten back to me with a price yet. My idea was to have a light over the sink similar to what they place over islands, but much smaller in scale. They were going to take to "C" shaped wall fixtures apart for me, in satin nicked or similar brushed finish, separate them by a small bar and add a matching pendant type arm that it would hang from. Anyway, not sure if you can imagine it, but they were as surprised as I was that they couldn't find anything similar available pre made to match the multiple light island lights. Like this:

They might be able to make something similar but with only two lights and scaled down in size from something like this:

What do you think?

Sue