Chandelier Height Guide

Your vision was primed and ready. Everything fits together in your head like an animation from your favorite HGTV show. Quick measurements reassured you that everything scaled, so you went ahead and purchased the crown jewel of your project – a brand new chandelier. Just after installation, you put the furniture back into place when it hits you… Either your table is too tall, your ceiling is too low, or your chandelier is too big. Where did it go wrong?

Good news! This free guide from Bellacor Professional manages to wind back the clock with a quick-glance chandelier height cheat sheet. Scale your chandelier to three standard ceiling heights and common chandelier sizes with expert precision. For even more detail, be sure to check out our full Chandelier Buying Guide for other useful tips and tricks!

Best Chandeliers for 12-Foot Ceilings

If you’re working on a project with a 12-foot ceiling, the images below will help you picture the most popular chandelier styles paired with your specific ceiling height, including traditional, transitional, contemporary, and farmhouse. Hover over each photo to see a variety of shapes, sizes, and styles. Look how quickly 24-inch and 12-inch chandeliers get swallowed up by the room! Clearly bigger is better for rooms with 12-foot ceilings.

In general, your chandelier should hang no lower than 30 inches to 36 inches above your table. While these rules can be bent to accommodate the interplay of room elements, this is a tried-and-true estimate for matching your chandelier to a space.

Quick Height Measurements:

If your table is 3 feet tall (36 inches), then all you need to do is add 36 inches to your table height to get the exact height from the floor from which your chandelier should hang: 36 inches + 36 inches = 72 inches. Subtract that number from your ceiling height to get the maximum height of your chandelier: 12 feet, or 144 inches – 72 inches = 72 inches
Max Chandelier Height for 12-Foot Ceilings:

72 inches tall – for a 3-foot tall table

60 inches tall – for a 4-foot tall table

Best Chandeliers for 9-Foot Ceilings

If you’re working on a project with a 9-foot ceiling, hover over the photos below for ideas and different chandelier styles and sizes. Notice what a big difference three feet makes compared to our 12-foot ceiling examples – effectively cutting the optimal chandelier size roughly in half!

Quick Height Measurements:

With a 3-foot tall table (36 inches), add another 36 inches to account for the gap between the table and the chandelier base: 36 inches + 36 inches = 72 inches. Subtract that number from your ceiling height to get your maximum chandelier height: 9 feet, or 108 inches – 72 inches = 36 inches.
Max Chandelier Height for 9-Foot Ceilings:

36 inches tall – for a 3-foot tall table

24 inches tall – for a 4-foot tall table

Best Chandeliers for 8-Foot Ceilings

Many homes and offices come with a standard 8-foot ceiling. Same as our 12-foot and 9-foot examples, this 8-foot ceiling height slider will help you picture a few popular chandelier styles for your space.

Quick Height Measurements:

With a 3-foot tall table (36 inches), add another 36 inches to account for the gap between the table and the chandelier base: 36 inches + 36 inches = 72 inches. Subtract that number from your ceiling height: 8 feet, or 96 inches – 72 inches = 24 inches.
Max Chandelier Height for 8-foot Ceilings:

24 inches tall – for a 3-foot tall table

12 inches tall – for a 4-foot tall table

Expert Tips

If you are concerned with chandelier width interacting with your table width, all you need to do is take the width of the table and subtract 12 inches, leaving 6 inches to work with on each side.
Since tables run the gamut in width, this metric isn’t included in this assessment, but it is a good measurement to keep in mind.