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How to Buy a Dining Room Chandelier

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How to Buy a Dining Room Chandelier

Here's another great tip from BobVila.com. A dining room chandelier is a great focal point for one of the most important entertaining and family-gathering spaces in your home. You can spend anywhere from $100 to several thousand dollars on a chandelier and choose from an enormous variety of styles. From Tiffany stained glass and craftsman to colonial brass, Venetian glass and the traditional cut-crystal styles, the selection is dizzying. Here are some guiding principles to help you choose. First is style: when it doubt, keep very close to the period and architectural style of your house. If you re feeling brave and your d cor will support it, you might find an intentionally unexpected mix that expresses your personal taste. A wildly colorful modern glass piece can look great in a traditional dining room, as can a rustic iron piece in a modern loft. Next, find the right size for your room. Measure the room dimensions in feet and add them to find the suitable diameter in inches. For instance, a room that s 10 by 12 feet would look great with a 22-inch chandelier. Consider the size of your table. The chandelier should measure roughly a third of its width and hang 30 inches above it. If you don t have high ceilings, a multitiered chandelier is probably not the right choice. If it s hard to visualize how your favorite pick will look in the room, do a cardboard mockup. It will give you an idea of the space the fixture will occupy and help you find its correct installation point in the ceiling. You want the chandelier centered on your table, which is not necessarily centered in the room. While it will be the focal point, don t count on the chandelier as the only light source in the room. Wall sconces, recessed lights in the ceiling or table lamps will help illuminate the room without blinding those at the table. For power, estimate you ll need between 200 and 400 watts total, divided between all the bulbs. Install the chandelier on a dimmer switch so you can control the intensity of the light based on the occasion. Like most electrical jobs, this installation is best left to a licensed electrician. Find out more at BobVila.com: The ultimate home improvement web site! BobVila.com 2008

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Roof Types

The type and shape of the roof on your home can help determine how well it will perform during a severe windstorm. A hipped roof is one that slopes upward from all sides of the building. Because of its aerodynamic properties and construction techniques, most hipped roofs will perform better in windstorms than the second roof type: a gabled roof. A gabled roof has two slopes that come together to form a ridge or a peak at the top, each end looks like the letter A. Homes with gabled roofs are more likely to suffer greater damage, such as collapse of the end wall from high winds because they are often not braced properly during construction. If your home is built with a gabled end wall, use one of the following construction techniques. Continuous wall construction or Balloon framing. Use full-height studs, concrete or solid masonry walls from the floor below all the way up to the roof. Balloon-framed gable end walls perform better in windstorms because they do not have the hinge that usually exists where the triangular part of the gable sits on top of the wall below. Platform framing. Brace the intersection of the gable and the end wall. This intersection is a particularly weak point and those that are not properly braced can collapse, causing major damage to the roof, allowing wind and wind driven rain into the home. In homes with attics, an attic floor or ceiling diaphragm with the proper bracing techniques can be used to provide the lateral support of the gable end wall if the end wall is framed full height. Install bracing along the top and the bottom of the gable end. In addition, connect the gable end to the top of the end wall using metal hurricane connectors. In homes with high cathedral-like ceilings, where there is no ceiling to brace the gabled end, will have to be balloon framed or will require a special design by a registered or licensed engineer.

Applying a Plaster Coated Ceiling

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