How high above the table, and how many pendants for a long one

About 70 to 80 cm from tabletop to the bottom of the shade. One or two pendants over a 1.6 m table, spacing, and what to do when the ceiling outlet is off-centre.

Đặng Thu Hà · Founder, lighting design · Published 17 Mar 2026 · Updated 4 Oct 2026 · 6 min read

A dim living room with a brown corduroy sofa against a bare wall, a floor lamp on the right washing the wall in warm light

Hang the pendant so the bottom of the shade is about 70 to 80 cm above the tabletop. A round table, or a rectangular one up to about 1.6 m, takes one lamp in the middle. Longer tables take two or three, 60 to 80 cm apart centre to centre. And if the ceiling outlet isn’t over the table, you don’t need to open the ceiling: a VND 150,000 offset swag hook brings the lamp back to the middle of the table.

This is the detailed companion to our guide on choosing pendants for the living and dining room. Here it is only height, number of lamps and position.

Where 70 to 80 cm comes from

The guides we have read give ranges close to each other. Lights.co.uk says 60 to 70 cm. Lightnox, a German lighting retailer, says 60 to 75 cm, noting that lower feels more intimate and higher spreads the light wider. JYT Design in Taiwan says 75 to 80 cm is typical. Bock Lighting in the US gives 30 to 36 inches, roughly 76 to 91 cm.

We hang at 70 to 80 cm, with 75 cm as the default for a table of four. We sit at the higher end because Vietnamese family meals put shared dishes in the middle: people reach across to serve themselves and stand up to pour tea, and a lamp too low gets in the way of hands and heads.

How to measure:

From the tabletop, not the floor. Dining tables run anywhere from 72 to 78 cm high.
To the lowest point of the lamp. On a Hạ Chí rattan shade that is the bottom rim; on a staggered set it is the lowest lamp.
Sit down and look. If you can see the bulb from your chair, raise the lamp a few centimetres or choose a more closed shade.

Step three matters more than the first two. The number is a starting point; the eyes of the person sitting there decide.

Round and square tables

A round or square table needs one lamp, centred. Lights.co.uk suggests a shade between half and two thirds of a round table’s diameter. A Ø90 cm table for four suits the Hạ Chí (Summer Solstice) pendant at Ø45 cm, VND 2,900,000. A Ø120 cm table for six takes the Ø55 cm version, just under half the table, at VND 3,500,000 (VND 2,900,000 plus VND 600,000 for the large size).

Long tables: one big lamp or two or three small ones

Lightnox says one pendant covers a table up to about 160 cm. Lights.co.uk suggests two or three for a 160 to 200 cm table. JYT Design suggests two lamps 40 to 50 cm across for a 2 m table, each hung a third of the way in from the ends.

How we choose:

Table	Lamps	Our suggestion	Price before VAT
Round Ø90 cm, or 1.2 m rectangle	1	Hạ Chí Ø45	VND 2,900,000
1.6 m rectangle	2, about 60 cm apart	2 × Hạ Chí Ø35	VND 5,200,000
1.8 m rectangle, six seats	4, staggered	Xuân Phân	VND 9,800,000
2 m rectangle	2 at the thirds, or 3 at 60 cm	2 × Hạ Chí Ø35, or Tiểu Mãn	VND 5,200,000 or VND 3,600,000

Two lamps at the thirds of a 2 m table end up about 67 cm apart, inside the 60 to 80 cm spacing Lightnox suggests. Our Tiểu Mãn (Grain Buds) set of three Ø24 cm seagrass shades hangs at 60 cm spacing and suits a long narrow table or a counter better than a wide dining table.

Big lamp or several small ones is mostly about what you want to see. One large lamp gives a long table a centre and darker ends. Several small lamps share the light out, so everyone sees their own plate.

Staggered sets

The Xuân Phân (Spring Equinox) set is four pendants, two with linen shades and two in square-weave rattan, hung at four heights along a 1.8 m table on cables from 1.2 to 1.8 m. The lowest lamp stays 70 to 80 cm above the tabletop and the other three step up from there. We put the lowest one where people sit most often, which is not always the middle of the table.

When the ceiling outlet is off-centre

This is the problem we meet most in apartments. The developer put the outlet in the middle of the room; you put the table by the window.

Khoa and Uyên’s apartment in An Khánh ward (old Thảo Điền, in former Thủ Đức City) had its outlet 60 cm off the centre of the dining table, under a 2.7 m ceiling. We used an offset swag hook: the cable leaves the outlet, runs along the ceiling to a hook fixed directly above the centre of the table, and drops from there. No cutting into the ceiling, no rewiring. The swag hook is a VND 150,000 option on every lamp.

In An Khánh, the Xuân Phân set at VND 9,800,000 plus the hook at VND 150,000 came to VND 9,950,000 for the dining table, before VAT. With a dó paper Lập Thu for the reading corner (VND 1,900,000 plus VND 400,000), the whole order was VND 12,250,000. The drawing and timeline are on the An Khánh apartment project page.

A swag hook needs extra cable: the run along the ceiling plus the drop. When we work out the cable on the drawing we add the offset; if that goes past the standard length, each extra 0.5 m costs VND 60,000.

Where people go wrong

Hanging from the outlet. Right outlet, wrong table: the light lands on the floor and the backs of chairs.
Measuring from the floor. A floor-based height that works for one table can be 6 cm off for another.
Hanging high to be safe. At 100 cm or more above the table, seated people look straight into the bulb and the light spills across the room.
Forgetting the table moves. Tables get turned or extended when guests come. A swag hook lets you move the lamp with the table later.
A small lamp over a long table. A Ø32 cm shade over a 2 m table lights a patch in the middle and nothing else.

How we do it at the workshop

The height on the drawing is a plan. On installation day Khang hangs the lamp, asks you to sit at the table, and moves it up or down until it feels right to you. Only then does he fix the cable.

Before that, I draw the lamp into a photo of your room at the planned height, with the pool of light on the table. Send one photo by day, one in the evening, the ceiling height, the table size and where the outlet is. The first version is free and arrives within 48 hours. In Ho Chi Minh City, delivery and installation are free once per order. Outside the city, lamps travel in a wooden crate with an illustrated installation guide, which includes a page on setting the height using the three steps above.

If your table sits under the outlet, the table above is enough to choose by yourself. If the outlet is off-centre, send us a room photo and we will work out the cable route and length. For low ceilings, read pendants and a 2.6 m ceiling.

Sources and last check

Lights.co.uk, Pendant light guide.
Lightnox, Illuminate your dining table like a pro, 19 August 2025.
Bock Lighting, Mounting Height Calculator.
JYT Design, dining table pendant height and size (Chinese).

How many lamps we choose, 60 cm between two lamps on a 1.6 m table, and adding the offset to the cable are our workshop’s practice, not technical standards. Prices are from our 2026 price list, before 8% VAT. Last checked 4 October 2026.