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Upon walking into your entryway, one of the biggest eye-catchers is that big beautiful chandelier! A nice, well-sized chandelier can immediately elevate your space. The wrong-sized chandelier can make your foyer feel awkward and disproportional.
When you have a tall two-story foyer to light with a chandelier, it should be big and fill the space appropriately. You want that thing to steal the show when it comes to your entryway. Make it the definition of a grand entrance for yourself and all of your guests! 🙂
I’ll be covering exactly how to pick the best chandelier size for your two-story foyer. This includes how high to hang your foyer chandelier and how tall & wide should your foyer chandelier be.
How High To Hang A Chandelier In A Two Story Foyer?
You have 3 popular options when it comes to the ideal two-story foyer chandelier height:
- Bottom of the chandelier aligns with the second floor
- Bottom of the chandelier aligns with the top of your banister
- Chandelier is centered on your foyer window
It’s truly all up to preference! But it’s also slightly dependent on the layout of your space. I’ll get into each of these points so you can make the best decision for your space.
1. Bottom of Chandelier Aligned With Second Floor
When would you align the bottom of your foyer chandelier with the second floor?
If you have a big foyer with lots of space, this is going to be your go-to! So if your foyer is wide and has a good amount of depth to it, then hanging your chandelier where the bottom aligns with the second floor should be perfect for you.
However, this option is dependent on your foyer layout and dimensions. See an example below!
Take my foyer for example. It doesn’t have a lot of depth to it, and it isn’t very wide (8ft x 10ft). I would consider this a narrow entryway. This causes my chandelier to hang slightly over my staircase, even if only by an inch or so. If I were to hang my chandelier where the bottom is in line with the second floor, then it would feel a little low when on the stairs. If you’re in the same boat, check out option #2!
My chandelier (splurge) | Similar chandelier (save)
For reference, my foyer is 17 feet tall and my chandelier is aligned with the banister and centered on the window.
Don’t have a staircase in your foyer? The bottom of your chandelier should be hung 1 foot taller than your first-floor ceiling height, which accounts for the 1 foot of space between floors. So if the majority of your first floor has a ceiling height of 8 feet, the bottom of your chandelier should be at least 9 feet from the floor!
I highly recommend your two-story foyer chandelier height not be any lower than aligned with your second floor as it will feel too low!
2. Bottom of Chandelier Aligned with Banister
If the layout of your foyer isn’t allowing for option #1, then this option will be your best bet!
As I mentioned previously, if you don’t have a very wide or deep two-story foyer entryway, then your chandelier might feel a tad too low. Or even hang over your staircase a bit. You definitely don’t want to feel like you’re going to hit your head each time you go up the stairs!
For this option, hang your foyer chandelier where the bottom of the chandelier is aligned with your staircase banister.
On average, a staircase banister or handrail is 3 feet tall. Lining up with this will get your foyer chandelier up and out of the way of your staircase, and it won’t feel too high or too low.
As you can see, the bottom of my foyer chandelier is pretty aligned with the top of my banister and this works perfectly for my narrow entryway.
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For fun, my husband held the chandelier at different heights before installation to see what worked best. So don’t be afraid to get your significant other or best friend involved in your chandelier-height adventures! 😉
No staircase in your foyer? If you like this height option but don’t have a staircase in your two-story foyer, follow this tip to recreate this height. A standard banister is 3 feet tall, so add 4 feet to your first-floor ceiling height (1 foot in between floors + 3-foot banister), and that’s where the bottom of your chandelier should be hung. For example, if your first-floor ceilings are 8 feet tall, hang your chandelier where the bottom is 12 feet from the floor.
Does this chandelier height feel too high in your space?
A happy medium is aiming to have the bottom of your chandelier aligned roughly halfway between the top of your banister and the start of the second floor.
3. Chandelier Centered On Your Foyer Window
Maybe one of the first two options sounds appealing, but you have a great big two-story foyer window showcasing your chandelier to the rest of the world.
This is really where your personal preference comes into play. Some would rather have their chandelier centered perfectly on their window. Chances are if this applies to you, your chandelier is already centered left to right, but here we are talking about centering on the top and bottom of the window.
From personal experience, since I have my foyer chandelier aligned with the top of my banister, my light is almost centered on my window as well. I probably just so happened to get lucky with this, but I’m sure others out there might find themselves in a similar situation, or be pretty darn close.
My chandelier (splurge) | Similar chandelier (save)
Someone asked me this and for some reason, it stuck with me – but it’s a very helpful question to ask yourself. Is it more important to you to have your light centered on your foyer window so it looks best from the outside looking in? Or is it more important to you to have the placement look perfect from the inside?
Maybe centering on the foyer window helps achieve both questions, but if not, really consider what’s most important to you, and it could help with your decision on how high to hang your chandelier!
How low is too low for a two-story foyer chandelier height?
If you have a two-story foyer, I’m going to assume you are working with at least a 16-foot tall foyer.
I’d recommend not hanging your foyer chandelier any lower than 9 feet from the floor to the bottom of the chandelier. This will avoid getting a face full of chandelier upon walking into your front entrance lol. But in all seriousness, 9 feet should be the absolute minimum for the height of a foyer chandelier.
How high is too high?
Aligning the bottom of your chandelier to the top of your banister is the maximum height you should go when hanging your chandelier. Any higher and you risk having the top of your chandelier too close to the ceiling, and that is going to look really out of place!
How wide should a chandelier be in a two-story foyer?
When you have a two-story foyer entryway, you can fill the first level with beautiful entryway decor. What about the space above the ground floor? You definitely want a foyer chandelier size that is going to appropriately fill the upper half of your entryway.
Essentially, the bigger the entryway you have, the wider you can go with your entryway chandelier.
For your entryway, your chandelier should be anywhere from 18”- 48” in diameter which will still look great no matter the size of your entryway. Anything wider than that is going to look a bit awkward anyway and like it belongs over a dining table. Anything smaller, and it just won’t look big enough. So it’s really all about finding the balance for your specific situation!
For example, my foyer is about 8 feet wide and my chandelier is 24” wide. And it looks stunning!
Remember, this is just a rule of thumb – feel free to adjust the dimensions a little bit if you have a chandelier calling your name!
How tall should a chandelier be in a two-story foyer?
Finding the perfect width of your chandelier is one thing, but how tall should a two-story foyer chandelier be? With two stories to work with, you have some room for a tall chandelier.
From the bottom to the top of your chandelier (not including the chain), a two-story foyer can fit anywhere from a 30”-48” tall chandelier without any issue.
My chandelier (splurge) | Similar chandelier (save)
Sometimes it’s really helpful to have a reference!
My chandelier is 34” tall, from the top hook on the cage to the bottom of the cage. Again, I have a 17-foot tall foyer that is 8ft x 10ft. The height (and width) of the chandelier is very proportionate to my foyer.
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My foyer is an average height and is probably the minimum for a true two-story foyer, so I wouldn’t go any shorter than a 30” chandelier. But obviously the taller your foyer, the taller your chandelier can be within this range.
Again, it’s truly all up to you! And these are simply just guidelines – never feel constrained to do what is best for YOUR space. 🙂
If I have a very tall foyer, how big should my chandelier be?
Have vaulted ceilings in your foyer? What if your ceilings are way taller than 17 feet?
How does that impact what I’ve talked about so far? It really doesn’t!
The height at which you should hang your two-story foyer chandelier really isn’t going to change with taller ceilings. However, since you have a lot more space above your head, you may find option #2 where you align the bottom of your chandelier to your banister to be the best for you to fill in a little more space above.
As far as your chandelier size, the width isn’t going to change, but this may enable you to get a taller chandelier if you desire! OR you could just stick with the guidelines listed in this post up to this point, and you’d still be totally fine. Really tall foyers are not going to impact these dimensions much at all!
No matter if you have an 18-foot ceiling, 20-foot ceiling, or 25-foot ceiling, you won’t need to do anything differently!
My chandelier (splurge) | Similar chandelier (save)
What is the most popular height to hang a two-story foyer chandelier?
Hanging your chandelier where the bottom aligns with the top of the banister (option #2) and centering your chandelier on the foyer window (option #3) are the most popular chandelier heights!
I’ve also seen a lot of people hang it where the bottom is halfway between the top of the banister and the start of the second floor.
Choose the height that makes the most sense and looks best for your specific foyer design!
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What size is your chandelier? Gorgeous!!
Hi Hayley! Thank you so much! We have the 24″W x 34″H Kentfield Pendant and it works perfectly in our foyer! 🥰