French Country Chandelier in the Great Room

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This new french country chandelier in the great room might be one of my favorite changes to our spec house. I’ve been telling you guys we were going to add our touch to make this plain house cozy and personal. There are so many ways to update a builder grade house that don’t cost a fortune, often just changing one or two things will transform a room.

I want to start by saying thank you to Build.com for sponsoring this project. All opinions, ideas and selections are 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links, you can see my full disclosure here.

Lighting is one of those things. Chandeliers aren’t always the cheapest thing to update, but they have one of the biggest impacts on the style of your home. Builders add nice light fixtures to new homes, but they are often very generic, which I get – they are trying to appeal to a wide audience. But once you move in that audience dwindles to the number of people in your crew, so I say – appeal to them! I’m going to share my vision board for our vintage french country great room here soon, I am still tweaking a few ideas and we will talk about vision boards then. They are THE BEST way to plan the room of your dreams and have it all come together, more on this topic later!

I just couldn’t wait to share the french country chandelier we added because I’m so excited about it! I pondered over a few different choices (I will share those in a minute, in case you are looking for some similar options) but landed on this beauty for a couple of reasons. This off-white wood looking base with wrought iron arms has the dreamiest frosted crystals that I haven’t really seen before. Aside from being gorgeous here are some other things I considered when choosing a new chandelier.

How Do I Pick The Right Chandelier?:

1. We live in Texas and the number one thing you see hanging in a great room is a ceiling fan. Friends, it’s hot. Like super hot. Like 115 just two days ago hot. I get it. But I am not a fan of the fan in the living room, especially a two-story living area. This is a personal choice and one that typically elicits strong opinions. Especially from the men. I chose a chandelier over a ceiling fan in the great room because it just looks so much better. Fans evoke very little personality and don’t typically lend themselves to a specific style. I will say fan designs have come a long way though! When you have a two-story room, it is near impossible to clean a fan and a dust bunny filled fan is no one’s friend. If you must have extra circulation a cute ground level fan can easily be worked into a room. We moved this fan to our son’s bedroom, where I am a fan of a fan! First tip – decide the purpose of your light fixture. Mine was beauty.
2. My goal was to tie the room to the kitchen and upstairs since the great room is the center of the house. With the wrought iron stair railing and creamy antiqued kitchen cabinets, I chose a chandelier that tied those elements together but stayed soft and light. Too much wrought iron would have been heavy and hard on the eyes. Second tip – Don’t get too matchy-matchy, stay complimentary instead.
3. The style is classic and it fits my design aesthetic. This size chandelier is more of a decorating investment and for that type of purchase, I steer away from super trendy decor items. I know with this french country chandelier that even if I decide to change up the furniture or decor, this style will mix well with anything I would choose. Thridt tip – When you pick lighting stay true to your taste and don’t try to be something you’re not, it will only lead to buyer’s remorse eventually!
4. I debated using a real antique chandelier but they are hard to find in this large of a size and the price tag associated with them is out of my budget. Therefore, I chose to buy a new chandelier with a vintage feel. I will add in some real vintage chandeliers in different areas of the house to keep the flow of mixing old and new for a lived-in feel. Fourth tip – Mixing old and new is a great way to help your new house get cozy quick.

My husband and I typically change out our of light fixtures, but with the two-story ceiling we opted for a professional and I am so glad we did! If you watch my Instagram stories you saw the massive ladder they used to hang this chandy, it was crazy! I recommend you get help if you are not used to doing this type of DIY install.

I also asked you guys which kind of light bulb to go with in the new chandelier and it was so interesting to hear everyone’s thoughts and ideas on this small question! Ultimately I chose the crystal light bulb because I loved the dainty sparkle it threw off the chandelier. In a very large, two-story great room a little extra sparkle never hurts! Little touches like this make a room feel different, but you can hardly put your finger on the reason why and that is the best!

Here is a list of French Country Chandeliers I looked through before narrowing down my selection to this one! All of the following are options from Build.com. I love the variety of search options they give to help you find the perfect product. You can search by style, material, price, shape, brand, light direction and others to narrow down your choices quick! Plus they have a HUGE selection and you can tag your favorites, you will definitely find something to fit your needs. BUT – I narrowed down some of my favorites for you, here is the list.

The Best French Country Chandelier Selections:

1. Kichler Kimberwick 9 Light Chandelier
2. Craftmade Winton 2 Tier 9 Light Chandelier
3. Artcraft Wrought Iron 6 Light Chandelier
4. Quorum International Persian White Florence 6 Light Chandelier
5. Kichler Distressed Antique White Hayman Bay 6 Light Chandelier
6. Livex Antique Gold Leaf Pennington 8 Light Chandelier
7. Capital French Oak Chateau 10 Light Chandelier
8. Savoy House Fossil Stone Mallory 5 Light Chandelier
9. Kichler Sterling Gold Birkdale 8 Light Chandelier
10. Quorum International French Umber Salento 9 Light Chandelier

You might want to pin this post or save it for later when you are ready to make a chandelier decision. Hope it helps your selection process and you love your game-changing light fixture as much as I do!