Yes, if you look straight up into it. The lowest tier draws inward but doesn't close, so the base is open rather than shut. Worth planning for rather than discovering.

Two things fix it. Hang it a little higher than you would a closed-bottom fixture — over a table, toward the 36″ end of the range rather than 30″. And fit frosted or opal bulbs instead of clear ones. A clear filament visible through an open base is the one thing that would spoil this; a frosted bulb reads as another soft glow among the stone.

20″ wide for a table or island of 36–48″, a breakfast nook, or an entry. 26″ wide for a dining table of 54–72″, a kitchen island, or an open-plan room.

But check the height too, because the bigger one is deeper as well as wider. The 20″ is 18.2″ tall; the 26″ is 25.6″ — nearly as deep as it is wide. Going up a size costs you 7½ inches of headroom, and that's the part people forget until the electrician is on the ladder.

Because they're cut from real quarried stone, not moulded from resin. Every tile has its own veining, and some glow noticeably warmer than the ones beside them.

On a fixture with this many overlapping pieces, that's the first thing you notice — and it's what tells you the stone is real. A set that matched perfectly would have to be plastic.

Warm and layered rather than one even glow. Because the tiles overlap like roof shingles, light comes out three ways at once — through the stone, around the edge of each tile, and between the rows where they step.

So you see bands of light stacked one beneath another, brightest along the lapped edges and softer through the body of each tile. A single sealed shade can't do that; it has no edges for light to escape from.

To dim it — and over a dining table most people eventually do — swap them for dimmable E12 or E14 bulbs in every socket, not just some, and pair them with a dimmer switch. Add up the total wattage of all the bulbs and check your dimmer is rated for it.

That tile is replaced on its own. Each one is held by its own brass pin rather than set into a sealed frame — which is also what lets the rows overlap this closely. A single damaged piece never means returning the whole fixture, with freight both ways and weeks of a bare ceiling.

If anything arrives damaged, send us photos within 24 hours of delivery and we'll replace the affected tiles.

A soft dry cloth on the stone, working from the top row down so dust falls away from what you've already done. Keep water off the tiles — alabaster is porous, absorbs it, and leaves a mark that won't buff out.

No sprays, no polish, nothing abrasive. The brass frame can take a barely damp cloth followed by a dry one. Switch off and let the bulbs cool first. Once or twice a year is plenty.

Kitchen island: yes, with one caveat — overlapping tiles collect cooking grease in the laps, and grease doesn't come out with dusting. If your island is next to the hob rather than across the room from it, think twice.

Bathroom: no. This is an indoor dry-room fixture with no protection against water or steam, and alabaster is porous, so damp is bad for the stone as well as the wiring.