With ceiling fans for indoor and outdoor spaces available in such a wide array of different styles and designs, it’s easy to make a ceiling fan pull double duty as a design element. The right ceiling fan can become a focal point that ties the room together and perhaps even sparks conversation.
But how can you choose a fan that will really tie together the room where it hangs? It’s best to choose a fan design that goes with the house, rather than just with your furniture. Coordinate the colors in the fan to the colors in your home. And make sure you get the right size fixture for your room.
Match the Fan to Your House, Not Your Furniture
When you’re choosing a fan to be an important design element in your home, you have to keep in mind that a ceiling fan, unlike a pedestal fan or a box fan, is a permanent fixture. You won’t be able to simply put it in storage if it doesn’t go with the rest of the house.
Before you choose indoor and outdoor ceiling fans for your home, imagine what each one would look like hanging in your home with none of your furniture and belongings in there. Picturing your new fan hanging in your empty home can help you decide how well the fan goes with your home’s structural design elements. That way you don’t end up hanging a fan with a coastal leaf-blade design in a downtown city loft with an industrial edge.
Coordinate with Your Home’s Colors
Fans are made with wood and metal, in differing amounts, depending on the fan design. Take a close look at the hardware – door knobs, hinges, light switch covers, and outlet plates – in the room where you’re planning to hang the fan. One way to ensure that the fan helps tie the room together is to choose a fan with metal hardware finishes that match the hardware already present in your room.
You can also match the wood finishes in the fan to the wood finishes in your home – especially those in structural elements of your home like the floor, trim, and doors. If you have white oak floors with matching trim and doors, choose a fan with a light oak wood finish, for example. That way your fan won’t look out of place when it’s time to sell and potential buyers are walking through the empty rooms.
Choose the Right Size Fan
Fan size is vital when it comes to choosing a fan to tie a room together. That’s because a fan should be sized appropriately for the square footage of the room it’s in. If it’s too large for the room, it’s going to overpower the space. If it’s too small for the room, it won’t provide the level of airflow needed and won’t be able to make the room as comfortable as you might like.
Fans come in a wide range of sizes, so you should be able to find one for your room no matter how big or small the space is. Start by finding the square footage of your room. If you’re hanging a fan in a room less than 75 square feet, you need a 29- to 36-inch fan. Rooms 76 to 144 square feet require a 36- to 42-inch fan. Rooms 145 to 224 square feet require a fan 44 to 50 inches across. Rooms 225 to 400 square feet require a fan 50 to 54 inches across. If your room is larger than 400 square feet, go with a fan 60 inches or larger.
Of course, if you want an eclectic fan design to stand out in the room and serve as a conversation piece, you should choose a fan on the larger side of the spectrum. If the room is small and you want a fan that will blend into the background without making the room seem smaller, choose a fan from the smaller end of the size scale – just make sure it’s large enough for the space. You can even buy a fan the same color as the ceiling for a small room with low ceilings, so the look of the fan doesn’t overpower the space.
Choosing a ceiling fan to tie your home together can be a real chore. There are so many designs to choose from these days, you’re just spoiled for choice. Take your time to choose the right fixture, so you can enjoy it for as long as you’re in your house.
