The Disappearing Dining Room Chandelier

An article on the lack of dining rooms in a recent issue of “The Atlantic” reinforced what I’ve been saying for a long time. When the dining room disappears, so too does the need for a formal chandelier. As this becomes more and more prevalent, like the article predicts and any visit to new model home illustrates, it will be a devastating blow to the decorative lighting business.

We can’t say the warning signs have not been posted. Grandiose, crystal-enhanced, multi-tier monsters have been virtually nonexistent of late. The more casual linear chandeliers continue to grow in popularity. Pendants, in place of classic chandeliers, have reduced the formality of the dining space. Dining room furniture has gone through its own metamorphosis, from stately and staid sculpted wood to mismatched tables and chairs, benches in place of seats and an almost complete elimination of buffets and china cabinets. Formal crystal, silver and china is a thing of the past. As homes increased in size, dining rooms have shrunk. It is only natural and obvious that the 100 to 200 sq. ft. dedicated to a barely used room would soon succumb to the inevitable, elimination.

I heard a designer years ago say, “…a chandelier is the feature, around which a home is built.” If that is true, we’ll need to find a way to replace this central luminescent element of our residential living spaces. I have three options.

1. About a year ago I wrote about smaller spaces and the rise of prominence in island lighting (Select Meaningful Island Pendants in Smaller Homes – https://wordpress.com/post/lightingbyjeffrey.com/2357 ) The same logic can be applied to larger homes. The kitchen island is becoming the new centerpiece, so the pendants selected should carry the same aesthetic punch as chandeliers of the past. An increased awareness of pendants over an island and selecting pendants that are commensurate in size and shape to the island is key. Combined with proper placement, island lighting will be the new residential showpiece.
2. Most of the guests to our homes enter through the front foyer. This is the place to make first impressions. At the beginning of the millennium, the foyer was king, but like the dining room, it has suffered the indiscretions of reality. Foyers represented a LOT of wasted space that could be more effectively used. Still, by nature of its location, it remains the spot with the most potential to impact opinion. I’ve written about well-placed semi-flush lighting. https://wordpress.com/post/lightingbyjeffrey.com/1790 Perimeter sconces can also differentiate a foyer, so too can floor lamps, illuminated mirrors and buffet lamps. We often ignore this tiny area of a home. Doing so is a mistake. It will be a larger folly when dining rooms exit the home.
3. This post is beginning to sound like a recap of my past warnings, so at the risk of delivering a blog post version of a broken record, this point might be expected. We all must be better at defining functional and non-decorative accent lighting so it delivers fashionable results. Using LED linear lighting well, selecting the proper recessed lighting with the proper beam angle, considering perimeter lighting and layering light so that the delivery of illumination is interesting and varied is crucial. Meaningful functional and intelligently placed accent light can easily be interpolated as an aesthetic statement, if defined by a smart designer.

I had a conversation about disappearing dining rooms with a builder based in Texas a few years ago. They were simply not seeing the reduction of demand. She reminded me that, “This was, after all, Texas. If we have one thing, it is land.” Texas, after all held onto oil-rubbed bronze, long past the rest of the country. Texas withstanding, America is in the midst of a substantial household structure deficit. We simply don’t have enough building to support the quantity of new households being formed. Affordability, caused by years of irrational minimum wage numbers has made homes and home ownership nearly impossible. Average homes will be smaller, spaces will become more compact and yes, the dining room will disappear from many, if not most homes. To maintain the impact light can provide, it is time to rethink how that is achieved.