Dome pendant lights are a perfect choice to help your room find its’ center. In other words, a dome pendant light can make your room feel grounded instead of too open. This is especially important if you have open-concept spaces, like a combination family room, kitchen, and dining room. A heavy dome pendant light can signal the uniqueness of a certain area within the larger open-concept space.
How Dome Pendant Lights Ground a Space
A dome pendant light’s bold color, size, and shape all help a room find its center and boundaries. Over the years, this has become more important to people when they are decorating their spaces. Especially during lockdown, families understood how important it was to have private spaces, individual rooms dedicated to certain tasks in order to have some sanity.
In Texas, we used to live in an open-concept home, that included a large room that combined a small living, dining and tiny kitchen. No walls separated these spaces. This created a lot of noise overflow. For example, I love to cook as a relaxing activity. I usually put on music and take my time chopping ingredients, and I enjoy the smells and take things slow. However, this happy and relaxing ritual can be interrupted by a loud TV, video games or indoor fetch game that my kids and dog are having. Also, if my kids were doing homework on the dining room table, my husband and I had to be pretty quiet in the kitchen and living room until they were done.
Since we moved to Chicago, we enjoy one aspect of the much older housing options in the city: the individual common rooms that impact the flow of a home. In previous generations, it was very common to have a dedicated room for each task, like living, dining, kitchen, pantry, etc. Now that we have been living in a house with an individual kitchen and living room, we have more privacy, quiet, and enjoy gathering together again in the living or dining room after a long day.
In addition to noise overflow, another huge benefit of individual common rooms is visual peace. Here’s what I mean. When we lived in an open-concept home, we often battled with ignoring kitchen mess after dinner when we wanted to just flop on the couch and relax before tacking the dishes. Also, if I had just folded tons of laundry, I wasn’t able to hide that away until it was all actually put away. It haunted me if I was in the kitchen, dining room or living room.
A big problem other people face besides the noise and visual clutter of open-concept living is how to make the individual spaces feel unique. People often use rugs, furniture (like bookshelves), or lighting to help communicate the designated use of each space within a larger space.
If you are not able to put up walls or move to another home, one way to visually separate the spaces in an open concept home is with a large, heavy dome pendant light, especially over the kitchen island (or bar) or dining table. I’ve also seen dome pendant lights centering a living room.
Here’s why dome pendant lights work so well.
Color
First, I suggest choosing a dome pendant light that contrasts with the color scheme of the rest of the space. For example, if you have a dark academia look in your home, a white dome pendant light would pop in the space. On the other hand, if you have white walls, light furniture and plenty of sunlight streaming in the windows, then a bold black or dark brown dome pendant light would be an obvious visual cue that the space is centered around this one item.
Size
Next, choose a pendant light that is large and bold enough to compete with the expansiveness of your space, especially if you have an open concept living/ kitchen/ dining space. In THIS post, I describe how to measure your room to know what size of pedant light to purchase, but like I say, you really can go bigger. Always round up to the bigger size option for your room. The scale will help designate the room’s purpose and function the way a dining table in the center of a room designates that the space is for eating.
There are so many dome pendant lights that appear heavy because of their metal finish, industrial looking features, and especially their size. They may just have that bold appearance, but in reality, they are light and easy to hang.
Shape
A dome pendant light’s shape is what really makes it a perfect choice to ground a space. Here’s why: the dome pendant light’s shape works like an arrow pointing downward, calling attention exclusively to what is underneath. The dome’s open bottom allows the pendant light to shine and illuminate the room’s contents immediately beneath it. This cues the eyes to designate the space.
Here are my suggestions for choosing a bold and beautiful pendant light that can signal division in a space that is too open.
8 Bold and Beautiful Dome Pendant Light Options from Amazon
First think about the color of your space. Is your space mostly white or light neutrals? If so, then a a dome pendant light in a bold, dark color like black would help add needed contrast to designate an area. I especially think options 3, 4, and 5 would work well. Also, option 4 comes in a set of 2 which would be perfect hung over a bar in an all white kitchen or minimal, neutral dining room.
If your space is more mixed, collected or eclectic, then option 2 or 6 would be a fun addition.
Next, consider the size of the space you want to designate. Like I mentioned previously, you want to size up after measuring your room. Again, THIS post reviews how to do that in detail. A larger dome pendant light option includes 2, 3, and 8.
Finally, think about what the dome pendant light is going to illuminate. Is the space your going to hang the dome pendant light over a long rectangular kitchen island? Is it a round breakfast nook or dining table? I think the dome pendant light you choose should mirror the shape of whatever it is you are shining light on. For example, option 4, 7, and 8 would look best over a wider table. Options 3, 5, and 6 would look great over a smaller space, such as a kitchen sink because the narrow dome on these pendant lights focus our attention on a smaller space.
You can also purchase a few of the same dome pendant light and hang them in a row for a larger space.
These dome pendant lights are a mix of styles; some of them are more classic, while others have a bohemian vibe, and option 6 has a hint of Victorian style! And if you missed my posts where I review more pendant lights, make sure to check them out. I have beautiful options for boho pendant lights, HERE, and I have some surprising Victorian pendant light options HERE.