Art Deco chandeliers are the fittings the period is remembered for, and the ones most often reduced to a caricature. The real interwar centrepiece is not a tree of crystal drops — that belongs to the century before. It is a stack of stepped glass tiers on a slim brass stem; or a cast frame with a fan-shaped shade slipping into each arm; or an alabaster bowl hung on three chains, throwing all its light at the ceiling. Three shapes, three completely different rooms, and they are worth telling apart before you measure anything.
Concentric discs or rings of glass, each smaller than the one below, stacked around a central stem — the skyscraper setback turned upside down and lit from inside. It reads as one glowing mass rather than as separate sources, it is comparatively shallow for its width, and it is the safest choice in a room with a normal apartment ceiling because most of its size is horizontal.
A cast metal frame with radiating arms, each holding a flat panel of frosted or moulded glass that slides into a groove. The pattern is in the glass — fans, chevrons, sunbursts, stylised flowers pressed into the panel — and it appears when the lamp is on and vanishes when it is off. These are the most decorative fittings of the period, and the most demanding of a room: they need height, and they need to be the only strong object on the ceiling.
A wide dish of alabaster, opal glass or plaster, hung on three chains and open at the top. Every ray goes to the ceiling and comes back diffused, so there is no glare anywhere in the room and no usable light on a table. This is atmosphere lighting, and it needs lamps or wall brackets alongside it.
Multi-light fittings are bought too small far more often than too large, because a photograph fills the frame and a ceiling does not.
Sizing and hanging a centrepiece fitting MeasurementRuleWorked example Diameter, middle of a roomAdd room length and width in metres, read the result as centimetresA 4 by 5 m living room takes roughly 90 cm across Diameter, over a dining tableOne third to one half of the table widthA 90 cm wide table takes 35 to 45 cm Fitting heightAbout 6 to 7 cm of fitting per 30 cm of ceilingA 2.7 m ceiling carries 55 to 65 cm of fitting Bottom of the fitting, over a table70 to 90 cm above the tabletopUse 75 cm at a 2.5 m ceiling, more as the ceiling rises Bottom of the fitting, in a room or hall2.1 m above the floor, minimumAt a 2.5 m ceiling that leaves about 40 cm of fitting depth Over a stairwell2.1 m above the highest tread it passesMeasure from the step below the fitting, not from the hall floorGlass tiers and cast frames are heavy, and the mass is concentrated at the bottom of a stem. The ceiling rose you already have is a wiring connection, not a structural anchor, and it tells you nothing about what sits above the plaster. Anything substantial needs a fixing into a joist or a bracket spanning two of them, and in a plasterboard ceiling that is a job worth opening up rather than guessing at.
Then ask two questions the photographs never answer. How does it assemble — many tiered and slip-shade fittings arrive as a frame plus a box of glass to be fitted one panel at a time from a ladder, and a second pair of hands is not optional. And how do you change a lamp: a fitting whose sockets face upward inside a glass tier is a different proposition over a stairwell than over a dining table.
A fitting with many horizontal glass surfaces above a dining table collects dust and, in an open-plan kitchen, a film of grease. That is a step ladder twice a year for as long as you own it. Slip shades lift out of their grooves for washing, which is one of the format's quiet advantages; tiered fittings with fixed glass have to be wiped in place. Factor it in before you fall for a fitting with fifteen separate panels.
Rarely. Cut crystal on a many-armed frame is the vocabulary of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interwar period preferred flat moulded glass, opal, frosted and smoked, in geometric plates and discs. Where crystal appears it is usually as square-cut blocks or bars, not as pear-shaped drops.
Over a table, yes and comfortably. In the middle of a room, keep the lowest point at 2.1 m and you have about 40 cm to work with, which points to a wide shallow tiered fitting rather than a multi-arm one.
Chain suits bowls and glass dishes and was the original suspension for them. A rigid rod or tube suits stepped and tiered fittings, keeps them from swinging in a hallway, and shortens only in fixed increments. Cable is the modern option and is easiest to adjust to an exact height.
For the table, usually. For the room, no — the walls stay dark and the space reads as smaller than it is. Add a pair of wall brackets or a lamp on a sideboard, on a separate switch, and the same fitting looks twice as good.
If the type is not settled, ceiling lights art deco weighs a chandelier against a single pendant and a flush fitting for your ceiling height. For one shade over a table, see pendant lights art deco. The wall brackets that finish the room are on wall lights art deco, and the earlier, organic style that gets confused with this one is on art nouveau chandeliers.
