Illuminating with Mini-Pendants

One of the best instant upgrades to the hub of your home, the kitchen, is to replace your antiquated island, breakfast nook or counter lights with sparkling new mini-pendants.

Pendant lights gently hang from the ceiling getting their name from the jewelry accessory of the same name. Mini-pendant lighting has a distinctive appeal and is considered perfect for places like kitchen islands, desks, breakfast nooks and the like.

I advise mounting mini-pendant lighting fixtures at 18" to 24" above the surface area to be lighted. Today’s mini-pendants are hung with coax cable, solid rods (6 and 12 inch) or decorative metal designs with stylish chains. This allows you to achieve the perfect height for your application no matter how high or low your ceiling may be.

The light source of preference is halogen. Many of our customers enjoy the option of using a color corrected MR16 for focused lighting or a simple halogen bi-pin lamp that brilliantly illuminates the shade. Most of our mini-pendants allow the user to swap out these two halogen lamp sources for effective lighting.

Whether your tastes are fine European hand blown glass, dazzling arts and crafts, ultra modern lines or timeless Americana, mini pendants will brighten your kitchen and bring to your home the WOW factor.

Tiffany Pendant Lighting

Tiffany pendant lighting styles are as varied as they are beautiful. The storied and infamous tradition of art glass lighting has been carried on to perfection by such manufacturers as Quoizel Lighting, who employ the same techniques and high quality materials used over a century ago when Louis Tiffany was still creating his masterpieces.

Tiffany pendant lighting can be found in two basic varieties: upward or down light. Upward Tiffany pendants are designed so that the light is bounced off of the ceiling and then reflected back downwards into the room. In other words, the upward Tiffany pendants are inverted so that their bulbs and shades both face the ceiling. This produces a very calm and flattering illumination.

For Tiffany pendant lighting fixtures designed in the down light style, the bulbs and the lampshades are facing downward and directly illuminate objects below. This may be a better choice if you read, sew or do basic tasks directly under the pendant(s).

Track Lighting and Compact Fluorescents

I’m often asked if our tradition two and three wire track heads are compatible with compact fluorescents. The answer is yes, as long as the CFL isn't hanging out of the can and drawing the eye to the glare.

Incandescent track heads will handle compact fluorescents but the challenge is getting something that fits, AND throws the light out of the can. Even though the CFL manufacturers name the CFL’s reflector floods BR30, BR40, PAR38 we all know that the CFL versions are larger than the incandescent/halogen versions due to the necessary ballast.

Spiral CFL’s fit nicely into traditional type track heads but will trap the light inside of the can reducing the illumination and performance of the CFL. When using CFL’s in track lighting try to fit a CFL that has a reflector, pushing the useable light out of the can.

I’m often asked what the difference is between two wire and three wire track and track heads.
Simple; most two wire track and track heads are Juno compatible, the second largest track lighting manufacture in the world, and most three wire track and track heads are Halo compatible, the largest track and track lighting manufacture in the world.

If you are ditching your existing track heads and intend on buying new track heads to install in you existing track system make sure you gather all possible information on your system before making the purchase.