Pendant Light Over the Dining Table: Getting Height, Size and Number Right

About 60 centimetres between the tabletop and the bottom edge of the fixture – that's the answer to the most common question in dining-table lighting. The industry body licht.de (Fördergemeinschaft Gutes Licht) puts it unambiguously: "60 centimetres above the table is right." The reasoning is practical: at this height, the light doesn't glare even with open shades, and the view of the person opposite stays clear. Hang the fixture lower and it sits in the middle of your sightline; hang it noticeably higher and an open shade can glare – licht.de explicitly advises against hanging it too high or too low. Fixture manufacturers set the frame a little wider: GANTlights recommends 60 to 75 centimetres for the bottom edge of the fixture, Lucide observes 60 to 80 centimetres as the usual hanging height – both manufacturer figures. In our consulting practice, we therefore start at 60 centimetres and adjust with people seated: only once everyone has taken their seats does it become clear whether the fixture glares or blocks sightlines.

Two rules circulate for fixture size – and they apply to different fixture types, which is why you shouldn't mix them up. Rule one concerns round and compact fixtures: according to manufacturer Lucide, their diameter should be at most half the table's width – the width, not the length of the table, is what counts. Rule two concerns elongated, linear fixtures: according to manufacturer GANTlights, they should take up around two-thirds of the table's length – here, the length is what counts. Swap the two rules and you'll quickly reach for the wrong size. In figures:

A long table needs more than one pendant – from around 180 centimetres of table length, manufacturers recommend two fixtures, and three for very long tables. Lucide notes that a table of 100 × 200 centimetres is usually not sufficiently lit by a single lamp; GANTlights sees two pendants as the more relaxed solution for table lengths of 180 to 240 centimetres and advises three for very long tables. For the spacing between several pendants, Lucide gives a simple guideline: roughly one fixture diameter between each fixture. That way, the light spreads across the whole table instead of piling up in the middle – and the seats at the ends don't sit in half-darkness.

Warm-white light between 2700 and 3300 Kelvin is the established recommendation for the dining area – a convention from the industry body and the specialist trade, not a rule. The classification comes from licht.de: warm white (2700–3300 K) is perceived as cosy and comfortable, neutral white (3300–5300 K) creates a more businesslike mood, and daylight white above 5300 K feels cool and clinical. The specialist trade goes a step further: lighting adviser Prediger recommends warm-white or, better still, extra-warm-white light for the dining room with a colour rendering above CRI 90 – aimed directly at the table and dimmable; elsewhere, Prediger defines the light colour "extra warm white" as 2700 Kelvin. Dimmability pays off twice: licht.de describes how smart systems switch the fixture over the dining table from cooler task light to dimmed warm white – from homework light in the afternoon to dinner light in the evening. What lumens, Kelvin and CRI mean in detail, and what to look for when buying light bulbs, is explained in our guide "Buying Light Fixtures Without the Jargon".

There's no binding standard for lighting private dining areas – every figure in this article is a convention from the lighting industry and manufacturer information, and we say so openly. The often-cited DIN EN 12464-1 in this context sets requirements for the lighting of indoor workplaces – offices, workshops, production spaces. It doesn't apply to the private dining room; if you read lux specifications for the home dining table somewhere, you're reading a transfer, not a rule. That doesn't diminish the rules of thumb: the fact that the industry body and several manufacturers independently arrive at around 60 centimetres of hanging height is a more reliable signal than any single figure from a single source. Knowing this origin lets you make an informed judgement rather than guess.

Whether 60 or 75 centimetres is right in the end depends on how the fixture, table and room work together – and that's best judged from the original piece. In our showroom at Nüschelerstrasse 30 in Zurich, five minutes' walk from the main station, we show pendant lights from Melogranoblu: the Italian manufactory from Grassobbio near Bergamo has, by its own account, specialised in hand-blown glass, with collections such as Hydra System, Nova System and Perfume. Also in our range: lighting from Bomma. If you're not just looking for a single fixture but a lighting concept for the whole dining and living area, you can combine the visit with our interior design consultation – the initial consultation is free. Open Monday to Friday 10:00–19:00, Saturday 10:00–18:00.