How to Pick the Perfect Chandelier Ceiling Fan for Your Living Room

Crafting a beautiful home that fits all your needs is a constant work in progress. There are many ways to enhance its overall look or make a few alterations to better suit your family's lifestyle. For instance, revamping your living room lighting is a great way to throw in some flair that can easily update your living space. 

Your living room is where lots of special memories are created. It’s where you entertain guests or spend hours relaxing with family and loved ones day in and day out. Of course, you’ll want your living room to be comfortable through the seasons. It can get warm in the summer and cold and dreary in the winter.

A chandelier ceiling fan offers the best of both worlds and can be the perfect lighting fixture that will deliver both style and function to your living room. Most, if not all, chandelier ceiling fans will have separate controls for the fan and bulbs. You can simply turn the fan on during the day if your living room needs a little bit of cooling and switch on the chandelier lights at night for some ambient lighting. 

Finding the right chandelier ceiling fan for your living room can be a challenge. Looks by itself isn’t enough—you’ll also need to consider size, number of fan blades, CFM ratings, mounting options, and whether it’s reversible. We’ve put together some valuable tips to help you choose the perfect living room chandelier ceiling fan for your home.

How to Find the Right Chandelier Ceiling Fan for Your Space

Before you head off on a full-blown shopping spree, you need to find out the limitations of your living room. Here's how to figure out what you need:

1. Determine the Size of Your Fixture

A chandelier ceiling fan that's too big or too small will look awkward, and that's just the start. Instead of producing that nice airflow you want, it could create a wind tunnel or lack the required air volume to make a difference.

The thing you need to do before shopping for chandelier fans is to measure your space. Multiply the length by the width, and you'll have the square feet. Here's a basic formula you can follow: Length (in feet) x width (in feet) = area in sq. If your room has an irregular shape, a square footage calculation guide can help.

Based on your room's square footage, you can determine what blade span you need. The blade span is the full width of the fan and its blades. Here's a handy guide to help you determine how large of a fan you need based on your room size:

For rooms less than 75 square feet, get a fan with a blade span of 36 inches or less.
For rooms measuring 76-144 square feet, aim for a fan with a blade span between 36 inches and 44 inches.
For rooms measuring 144-225 square feet, a blade span between 44 inches and 52 inches will be ideal.
For rooms measuring 225-400 square feet, go for a larger fan between 50 and 72 inches.

Few rooms are over 400 square feet, but if yours is, a 72-inch fan may still work well. If the room is far bigger than 400 square feet, you should installing multiple fans.

With all this in mind, square footage doesn't tell the full story. You also need to make sure you leave a minimum of 18 inches from the tip of each blade to any wall.

Let's say your living room is 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. Your square footage is 150 square feet, which means you want a chandelier ceiling fan that's between 44 and 52 inches in diameter.

Another scenario would be a room that measures 7 feet and 22 feet long. The square footage is closely similar, at 154 inches. However, you need to make sure the fan's blades are more than 18 inches from any wall.

In this case, you'll subtract 36 inches (18 inches per side) from the shortest distance of 7 feet (84 inches). This shows that your maximum blade span should only be 48 inches.

It’s also worth mentioning that most chandelier ceiling fans these days come with either four or five blades. This goes beyond just mere aesthetics—fewer blades mean less drag on the fan motor and more savings on your electric bill. They also deliver more airflow.

On the other hand, fans with more blades produce less airflow but are generally quieter than those with fewer blades. All things considered, a 4-blade or 5-blade chandelier ceiling fan provides the perfect balance between air circulation and ambient noise.

2. Choose Your Mounting Options

On top of room surface area, you need to account for ceiling height as well. In general, you want the bottom of the chandelier ceiling fan to be at least seven feet from the floor. For taller ceilings, aim for closer to ten feet.

A chandelier ceiling fan might not be the best choice if your living room ceiling is just around eight or nine feet high. Opt for a low-profile fan that mounts up against the ceiling instead. These are often called "huggers."

Depending on the height of the ceiling, your mounting options will vary. For higher ceilings, you'll have more space both above and below the chandelier. If you want the fan to be a few inches from the ceiling, look for flush-mount chandelier ceiling fans.

For ceilings higher than ten feet, you may need a longer down rod that can hang the chandelier farther from the ceiling. While some chandelier fans come with this option, you may need to buy an additional mounting kit that comes with an extended down rod.

You might also need to buy a special mounting kit or an adapter if you’re suspending your chandelier fan on a sloped ceiling. Make sure to get the correct ceiling height by measuring directly from the area of the slope where you intend to hang the chandelier fan. 

3. Determine the CFM Rating You Need

Another factor to consider when selecting a chandelier ceiling fan is the amount of airflow you need in your living room. Fans come with a cubic-feet-per-minute or CFM rating that represents the amount of air the fan can move.

Your target CFM rating will depend on the area of your living room. Here's a quick guide:

For living rooms, less than 144 square feet, aim for 1,000-3,000 CFM.
For living rooms between 144 and 225 square feet, look for fans with 1,500 to 5,000 CFM.
For larger living rooms measuring 400 square feet or more, look for fans with 5,000-13,000 CFM.

4. Choose a Reversible Chandelier Ceiling Fan

When buying a chandelier ceiling fan, we suggest you choose a reversible one. It will keep you cool during the summer and can save as much as 10% on your heating costs during the winter.

In summer, it moves in the "forward" direction ( counter-clockwise) to force cool air downwards, and your room can become instantly cooler through this downdraft effect.

However, in winter, you do not want to keep the direction of your chandelier ceiling fans the same to cool you down even further. This is why you need a reversible chandelier ceiling fan. You can switch it to run in the reverse direction on a low speed to gently draw up the warm air and push it back down, circling the warm air around the room.

5. Choose Your Lighting

Your chandelier ceiling fan isn't just a source of airflow that provides better ventilation and air circulation. It's a source of light as well. Before you start shopping, take a close look at how much light you already have in your living room. Think about other light sources such as natural light coming from windows, accent lighting from decorative lamps, and ambient lighting from other fixtures.

You should also consider how people in your home use the living room. If you use it for activities that require a lot of detail, you might want brighter lighting. If you watch TV in the living room, bright lights can create too much glare. A practical solution would be to install a dimmer for your chandelier. That way, you can achieve delightful thematic lighting depending on your needs.

If you're looking for a happy medium, consider installing a dimmer for your chandelier.

Finding Your Perfect Chandelier Ceiling Fan

Depending on how ornate a style you choose, your chandelier ceiling fan could be the focal point of your living room. Even if it isn't, it is still the most practical solution if you’re looking for added air circulation coupled with a generous amount of stylish illumination. The tips above can help you find the perfect fit.

For more hands-on guidance when selecting lighting fixtures, contact our high-end lighting experts.