Khoa and Uyên's apartment: light back over the table

Trịnh Đăng Khoa and Mai Phương Uyên live in a 68 m² apartment in An Khánh ward, the area most people still call Thảo Điền, in what used to be Thủ Đức city. Two bedrooms, and one open space for living and dining under a 2.7 m ceiling. Uyên reads every evening in a corner of the bedroom.

The room before

A round flush ceiling light, cool white, sat in the middle of the living area. The six-seat dining table stands by the window, so by the time that light reached the table it was weak and coming in at an angle, and the people sitting there cast shadows across their plates. In the reading corner Uyên had a clip-on desk lamp: one harsh spot, darkness around it.

The problem in numbers

The real problem was on the ceiling. The developer had left an outlet for a dining light, but 60 cm away from the centre of the table. A pendant hung straight from it would sit over the table’s edge, and someone on that side would have to duck. Moving the table under the outlet would block the way to the balcony. Chasing a new cable through a concrete apartment ceiling was something Khoa did not want.

With a 2.7 m ceiling and a tabletop at about 75 cm, there are only about 1.95 m between ceiling and table. The lamps had to come low enough to keep the light on the table, but not so low that they hide the face of the person opposite.

The mock-up, and one change

Đặng Thu Hà worked from evening photos of the apartment, the ceiling height and the outlet position, measured with a tape. Within 48 hours she sent the mock-up: a Xuân Phân (Spring Equinox) set of four pendants at staggered heights over the table, two linen shades and two square-weave rattan. The cables run from the outlet to an offset swag hook fixed to the ceiling directly above the centre of the table, 60 cm away, and drop from there. Four pools of light overlap along the tabletop. No new wiring.

For the reading corner, version one used a Lập Thu (Start of Autumn) pendant with a 32 cm seagrass shade, which gathers the light into one round pool on the page. Uyên wanted the light around that pool to be softer, so the room did not feel so dark when she looked up. Hà changed the shade to giấy dó (dó paper, made from the bark of the dó tree), VND 400,000 extra. Dó paper gives even light and you can see its fibres. It does not like damp, so Hà checked first: the bedroom has air conditioning on every evening and does not open onto a bathroom. Dry enough.

One change, then the drawing was approved.

Making and installing

Lâm Văn Lộc bent five brass frames, four for the Xuân Phân and one for the Lập Thu. Huỳnh Thị Mến wove the two square-weave rattan shades, fitted the two linen ones, and laid the dó paper shade in two layers. Tô Minh Khang wired everything and left each lamp lit for 24 hours. Three weeks.

Khang installed it all in one morning. The swag hook went into the ceiling on a single wall plug. He shortened the Xuân Phân cables on site so the lowest shade sits 75 cm above the table and the other three step up from there. The Lập Thu hangs over the reading corner on the standard 1.5 m cream cable. All five numbers under the canopies were photographed for our ledger.

What it is like now

In the evening the table is lit in the middle, the living area is dimmer, and nobody has to duck. Five LED bulbs with E27 sockets, 2700K (the yellow-white of an old incandescent), 6 W each, 30 W in all. The reading corner has a pool of light on the page and the pale yellow of the paper around it.

Uyên sums it up: “These days the old ceiling light only goes on when we clean.”

What it cost, and why

With 8% VAT that is VND 13,230,000, half as a deposit when the drawing was approved and half after installation. The VND 150,000 hook replaced cutting into the ceiling and rewiring. The dó paper shade was the only extra the couple chose for themselves. Delivery and fitting inside Ho Chi Minh City are free, once per order.

Hà has written more on this in how high to hang a pendant over the dining table and pendants under a low ceiling.