Choosing lighting pendants that aren't too dark

[oureas]

I'm looking for some advice. We've recently moved into our a new house with lots of lighting pendants and now get to choose. Exciting!

But we've tried a couple of pendants and they just don't light the room enough. It's like the shades have a permanent dimmer on them. I feel like giving up and just going back to having the bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling. What's the trick to selecting nice pendants but still keeping the room well lit?

A couple of pendants we've tried:
www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-baldwin-pendant-ceiling-light/p2943489
www.johnlewis.com/tom-raffield-cape-pendant-ceiling-light-60cm/p3250416

I think if you have had bare bulbs for a while you get used to that level of light so any shade you put up is going to make it look dim.

I love the first one you linked to, but I think the problem is that the shade is solid, you may be better with a lighthearted colour in an opaque material. Let me have a look if I can see anything, hang on.

Something like this maybe

www.dmlights.co.uk/muuto_fluid_large_opal_white~10CX2?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7IHyzcin2gIVirztCh2P5QBbEAQYJiABEgK8YPD_BwE

Or this

www.dunelm.com/product/priya-white-ceiling-light-pendant-1000084162

*light colour - not lighthearted

Many pendant lights aren’t really made to give out a lot of light as usually the main light is from lamps. Lamps give out a nicer light, are you going to have them as well?

Glass pendants give lots of light. You can get pretty light bulbs as they’re obviously visible.

what "bulbs" are you using? Type and power? In what size rooms?

are the ceilings white?

It’s to do with the recommended bulbs. A lot of these fancy “statement” lights demand low wattage bulbs but the room is then mood-lit rather than properly lit. Check the safety ratings and buy a brighter bulb to fit - or get an additional lamp elsewhere for more light - or choose another fittting.

I got some LED bulbs so that I could get a much brighter light out of them, but the wattage was still very low and within the guidelines. So I have the equivalent of 60 or 100 W bulbs, but it's only 8-13W in reality. I got some that are warm white, and they look pretty much the same as my old bulbs (which were the energy saving type, but not as much so as the LED - at least I hope these will be better!). They don't have the blue coldness of old LEDs, and they're a normal shaped bulb, too. I have fairly light shades overtop, so that I can get a reasonable brightness out of them.

Also something with white inside will reflect the light more than copper.

Thank you all!

We're in a Victorian house with a modern kitchen extension. All the ceilings are white. I'm finding it's an issue in all the rooms, but am mainly thinking about the reception room.

Eminybob, I like your suggestion to try shades which are more opaque.
DragonsAndCakes, we don't have any lamps at the moment. But it looks we should be adding those to the shopping list now.
Sallylondon & PickleFish, good suggestion about trying different bulbs. Definitely got that on the list to try as well.

We still have a £14 pendant from ikea and it was a temporary measure after done building work....... all those years ago
www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/lighting/ceiling-lights/knappa-pendant-lamp-white-art-50070651/
Prices have gone up I see!

A lot of pendant lights do seem to give out a low light, or to force the light downwards and light the bit below the light but not the rest of the room. We try and find ceiling pendants that are white. At the budget end I've got some white Ikea pendants in the children's rooms and at the more spendy end I've got something that looks like a big white pebble in the living room (can't remember the maker of this, think it came from Heal's but not sure if they still stock it). In our dining room we have a white pendant made of feathers that lets a lot of light into the room.

So basically we go for white pendants that are rounded (rather than pointing the light downwards or in a particular direction) to keep our rooms well lit. At a certain time of evening we switch off the overhead pendants and use lamps for a softer lighting effect.

Anything, at all, from Jim Lawrence.