Lights, please!

(Photo courtesy: Design by Delight, Chic Coles, Arts et Decoration, Canadian House and Home)

Noone is as obsessed about light fixtures as much as I am, and why is that? To me they represent the piece of great jewlery in an outfit. It represents atmosphere and ambiance and it can bring a room to the next level. As far as I am concerned you can do anything you want in terms of style, as long as it is to scale with the room. I would say a light fixture that is too small for the scale of the room jumps out as being "wrong", and too big also makes it an eye sore. It tricky to get that puppy to scale, but as a general rule of thumb, if you have a 10 foot room, you should have a 20in diameter light fixture always above a piece of furniture (for a chandelier). Hall wall lights and lanterns are different as they can stand alone. Another favourite of mine is always having a dimmer installed as they can get pretty bright on their own, plus you can adjust the type of mood you are going for... Have fun! I know I do....