--- title: "Khoa and Uyên's apartment: light back over the table" description: "The ceiling outlet was 60 cm off the table. Xuân Phân hung from an offset swag hook, plus a dó paper Lập Thu for reading. VND 12,250,000 before VAT." canonical: https://denhachi.thenexova.cloud/en/projects/an-khanh-apartment-thu-duc lang: en last-updated: 2026-10-05 --- ![An apartment living room at dusk, two square-shade table lamps lit on either side of the sofa, the city beyond the glass door](/_astro/project-apartment.CDpEuEv-_2vsMie.jpg) Khoa and Uyên's apartment · An Khánh ward (formerly Thảo Điền, Thủ Đức), Ho Chi Minh City · 2026 # Khoa and Uyên's apartment: light back over the table > The ceiling outlet was 60 cm off the table. Xuân Phân hung from an offset swag hook, plus a dó paper Lập Thu for reading. VND 12,250,000 before VAT. Nguồn / Source: https://denhachi.thenexova.cloud/en/projects/an-khanh-apartment-thu-duc The ceiling outlet was 60 cm off the table. Xuân Phân hung from an offset swag hook, plus a dó paper Lập Thu for reading. VND 12,250,000 before VAT. Owner Trịnh Đăng Khoa and Mai Phương Uyên Room 68 m² apartment, two bedrooms, open living and dining space, 2.7 m ceiling First light mock-up 48 hours after the photos Revisions 1: Lập Thu changed to dó paper Making and test lighting 3 weeks Installation One morning 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](/en/collection/xuan-phan) (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](/en/collection/lap-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 | Item | Amount | | ------------------------------------- | ------------------ | | Xuân Phân set of four | VND 9,800,000 | | Offset swag hook | VND 150,000 | | Lập Thu, Ø32 | VND 1,900,000 | | Dó paper shade instead of seagrass | VND 400,000 | | Delivery and installation in the city | VND 0 | | **Total before VAT** | **VND 12,250,000** | 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](/en/journal/pendant-height-over-dining-table) and [pendants under a low ceiling](/en/journal/pendant-lights-low-ceiling). An illustrative project for a demo site; figures are made up. ## Cost, before VAT | Xuân Phân set of four, standard | 9,800,000 VND | | ------------------------------------------------- | -------------- | | Offset swag hook for the Xuân Phân set | 150,000 VND | | Lập Thu Ø32, standard | 1,900,000 VND | | Dó paper shade instead of seagrass on the Lập Thu | 400,000 VND | | Delivery and installation in Ho Chi Minh City | 0 VND | | Total | 12,250,000 VND | - [1 × Xuân Phân](/en/collection/xuan-phan) Standard, raw brass, offset swag hook 60 cm - [1 × Lập Thu](/en/collection/lap-thu) Ø32, dó paper shade, raw brass, 1.5 m cream cable > “These days the old ceiling light only goes on when we clean.” > > Trịnh Đăng Khoa and Mai Phương Uyên Led by [Đặng Thu Hà](/en/workshop/makers/dang-thu-ha) [Send your room photo](/en/light-mock-up) ## Other projects - [![A pine-panelled bedroom with a woven pendant, a bedside lamp and an armchair by curtained windows](/_astro/project-homestay.COWX1-pq_ZpyPR6.jpg)Nhà Chín Phòng homestayNhà Chín Phòng: bedside light for a cold, damp town](/en/projects/nha-chin-phong-homestay-da-lat) - [![A café seen from a mezzanine, rattan pendants hung at different heights above guests sitting by a vine-covered window](/_astro/project-cafe.DiOGteOo_29Jb6Q.jpg)Thềm Chiều caféThềm Chiều café: a 3.6 m ceiling and twelve low pendants](/en/projects/them-chieu-cafe-nhieu-loc)