You Are Not Buying a Chandelier. You Are Buying Six of Them.
Every pendant hangs from its own ceiling base — which means the spacing, the heights and the shape are yours to decide, not ours.
There is a moment, three weeks after ordering a chandelier, when the box is open and the electrician is on the ladder and you realise the fixture is going exactly where the old one was — because that is the only place it can go. It is beautiful. It is also nine inches too far left.
Before Electricity, Light Had to Be Carried
For most of human history a room was lit by moving flame around it. A candle was set on the table you were reading at, then carried to the one you were eating at. Light went where you needed it, because it had no other way of getting there.
Wiring ended that, and something was quietly lost. A ceiling rose is decided by a builder, often before anyone knows where the furniture will stand. From that moment the light has one address, and every table, sofa and bed in the room is arranged around a hole in the plaster.
A chandelier fixes light to one point. A chain lets it travel again.
The swag chain is the oldest workaround there is — a chain hooked into the ceiling, carrying the fixture sideways to where it is actually wanted. It was a practical fix long before it was a look, and it is still the only honest answer to a junction box in the wrong place.
What changes here is that the workaround became the design. Rather than one fixture swagged across from one point, this is a set of individual pendants, each with its own base, connected by chain. The light is not fixed to the ceiling; it is distributed across it. Six drops, six positions, six heights — arranged the way you would have arranged six candles, if you were still carrying them.
That is also why every stone is different. Each shade is cut from quarried alabaster, so the veining, the depth and the warmth vary from one to the next. The arrangement is yours, and no two of the pieces in it are quite the same.
Every Pendant Has Its Own Ceiling Base
Most chandeliers are one object: one canopy, one width, one drop. Wherever the wiring already is, that is where it goes.
The Alabaster Chain Chandelier is not built that way. It is a set of individual pendants, each mounting to its own round ceiling plate, screwed wherever you want it. The chain then swags across to the next.
So the spacing is entirely yours. Cluster them 12 inches apart in a tight group over a dining table, or run them 3 feet apart along the length of a kitchen island. Straight line, staggered, scattered — the fixture itself does not dictate the layout. Almost nothing else in this category can say that, because almost everything else hangs from a single plate with the geometry fixed at the factory.
The fixture does not decide where the lights go. You do — with a screwdriver, on the day.
And every height adjusts on its own
That is the second axis. Each chain is a series of links, so you set the drop by adding or removing links — nothing arrives at a fixed length. One link changes the height by roughly 4 to 8 inches: coarse enough to be quick, fine enough to look deliberate.
Every pendant also ships with 150 cm / 59″ of cord, so there is slack to work with. Over a table you might hang them level; down an open stairwell you drop each one a link lower than the last and let the group step down the void.
Canopy, base plate and fixings are all in the box — one set per pendant, nothing to source separately. Each plate covers its own mounting point completely, so from below you see a clean disc and a chain, not screw heads.
Which Configuration Goes Where
Every shade is the same size — ∅ 3.9″ x H 7.9″丨∅ 7.9″ x H 11.8″. What changes with the count is how much ceiling the arrangement spans, and that is what has to match your room.
Moreover, nine is not the upper limit. That is simply the quantity most frequently ordered, not a hard restriction—we can certainly create larger, custom floral arrangements to suit your needs. If your space requires twenty stems, we can discuss a tailored solution.
Three Ways to Hang the Same Fixture
Because every chain adjusts and every base moves, one configuration takes on a completely different character in each room.
The numbers, all in one place
One more that's easy to forget: anywhere people walk beneath the fixture rather than sit under it, keep at least 7 feet of clearance above the floor. That's the number that stops tall guests ducking in a hallway.
Hanging every drop at the same height on a multi-pendant cluster. It reads as an accident rather than a decision. Hang them all long first, stand back, then shorten one chain at a time — and judge the distance from the tabletop or the floor, not from the ceiling, because that's what your eye actually reads.
Custom Arrangements, Step by Step
Non-standard rooms are the normal case, not the exception. Custom layouts are built the same way every time:
Chains longer than the standard 150 cm / 59″ are supplied on request for stairwells and high ceilings, and the hardware comes in black or gold against the natural white stone. A different metal is a question rather than a no.
Why Alabaster, Rather Than Glass
Everything above is about fit. The material decides what the light feels like once it's all up.
Clear glass shows you the bulb. Frosted glass hides it but flattens the light into an even, characterless wash. Natural alabaster does neither — light enters the stone, travels a short distance through crystalline mineral, and leaves softened and slightly warmed, carrying the shadow of the veining with it. The source disappears; what you see is a glowing object rather than a covered lamp.
The practical consequences matter more than the poetry. Stone will not yellow beside a warm light the way resin does over the years, and gives off no odour as it heats. And because alabaster is quarried rather than moulded, every shade carries its own veining — so on a multi-light arrangement the stones won't match each other exactly, and one or two will glow a little warmer than their neighbours.
Worth knowing before you buy rather than after. It isn't a flaw — a set that matched perfectly would have to be plastic — but it's visible on a cluster in a way it never is on a single shade. Customers who expect it tend to describe it as the best thing about the fixture.
The Cylinder Is One Shade. There Are Six.
(Please contact us if you require alabaster in other shapes.)
Everything in this guide — the independent bases, the link-by-link chains, the configuration counts, the three arrangements — is true of the whole chain family, not just this fixture. What changes between them is the shape of the stone hanging on the end.
So if the mechanics suit your room but the cylinder is not the silhouette you had in mind, the answer is not to compromise. It is to pick a different shade and keep everything else.
There is also a cluster version that gathers cylinders from a single point rather than spreading them across the ceiling — a different logic again, for rooms where there is only one place the wiring can go.
Because each pendant is a separate piece on its own base, an arrangement does not have to use one shape. Spheres at the ends and cylinders in the middle, or a single ring among capsules — tell us the combination and it is built that way. Same chains, same bases, same adjustment; only the stone changes.
Questions, Answered
How many pendants do I need over my dining table?
Match the count to the table length rather than the room. 3 lights over a 3–4 ft table, 5 lights over 5–6 ft, 7 lights over 6–8 ft, 9 lights over 8–10 ft.
Five is the count most rooms actually want. If you are between two numbers, go with the smaller one — a slightly sparse arrangement looks considered, a crowded one looks like a mistake.
Do all the pendants have to hang in a straight line?
How do I change the height of each drop?
By adding or removing chain links. Each link changes the height by roughly 4–8 inches, and every pendant ships with 150 cm / 59″ of cord so there is slack to work with.
Hang them all long first, stand back and look at the group, then shorten one chain at a time. Judge the distance from the tabletop or the floor — not from the ceiling.
How low should it hang, and how far apart?
Over a table or worktop, the lowest shade sits 30–36″ above the surface. Anywhere people walk beneath it, keep 7 ft of clearance above the floor.
For spacing: 18–30″ between drops over a table, 24–36″ over an island, and 36–60″ in a stairwell where wide spacing is what creates the drama.
My ceiling is very high — can the chains be longer?
Can I have more than thirteen pendants?
Can I mix different shade shapes in one arrangement?
Why don't the stones all look the same?
Because they are cut from quarried stone rather than moulded. Every shade carries its own veining, and one or two will glow a little warmer than their neighbours.
On a single shade you would never notice; hung side by side it is the first thing you see. It is not a fault — a set that matched perfectly would have to be plastic — but it is worth expecting before delivery rather than after.
Is it hard to install? Do I need an electrician?
It is a hardwired ceiling fixture, and every base plate mounts to a standard US junction box. A single drop is straightforward for anyone comfortable with wiring; a multi-pendant arrangement means several mounting points and is worth handing to a qualified electrician.
Cut the power at the breaker first, and check with a voltage tester rather than trusting the switch. All the fixings arrive in the box — one set per pendant.
How do I clean it?
Not sure which configuration your room wants?
Send a photo of the space with the ceiling height and the width of the table or island. We'll come back with a head count, a layout and the drop heights — including telling you when fewer pendants would look better.
Alabaster Chain Chandelier
- Configurations 1–9 +
- Shade [∅ 3.9″ x H 7.9″丨∅ 7.9″ x H 11.8″ SHADE SIZE]
- Chain 59″ · adjustable
- Light 3000K warm
- Finish Black / Gold
