A bedroom chandelier is seen more lying down than standing up, which changes what matters. It should look as good from the pillow as from the door, and give a light you can read by and then turn down. Softer materials and lower profiles earn their place here.

What a bedroom asks of a chandelier

The view is from underneath. A piece with an exposed bulb glares at the pillow; a shade of alabaster, bamboo, or crystal diffuses it, and a ring or a flush mount keeps the underside clean. Bedrooms are also the lowest-ceilinged rooms in most homes, so the drop has to be shorter than a dining room allows. Thirty-two of our chandeliers suit a bedroom. Alba and Velina glow through alabaster, Amara, Elva, and Liora are hand-knit bamboo, and Arina sits flush to the ceiling for a lower room. Ring, Janice, and Aurelius keep to a single clean shape, Obsidian and Raven bring crystal in black for a darker scheme, and Mirella is a solid brass globe.

How to choose the right size

Add the room's length and width in feet and read the sum as inches of diameter, so a 12 by 14-foot bedroom takes a piece about 26 inches across, and hang it over the foot of the bed rather than the pillows, at the smaller end of the range. Keep 7 feet of clearance under it. Ceiling height narrows the field: 21 of the 32 are tagged for 10 to 12-foot ceilings, 4 for 9 to 10, and 6 for 8 to 9, where Arina sits flush and Ring keeps the room open. Twenty-eight are tagged for angled ceilings, which a bedroom under a roof often has.

Styles and rooms across the range

Alabaster and bamboo are the bedroom materials: they diffuse the light and read soft from the pillow, and the alabaster collection and the natural and woven chandeliers pages gather them. A single ring suits a minimalist room, and black crystal suits a moodier one. The rest of the layer, the bedside wall lights and the ceiling lights for a lower room, lives in the bedroom lighting collection.

Every one runs warm white, and 28 of the 32 dim from the wall switch. Choose the softest material the room can take, then the smaller of two sizes.