LIGHTING
A pendant light is the lighting decision that defines the room. Table lamps accent. Floor lamps support. A pendant sets the ceiling plane, carves out the zone beneath it, and tells everyone walking in what the room is for. Get it right and the space reads finished from the doorway. Get it wrong and nothing else you do afterward will quite land.
At Habitus we sell pendants across every room in the house, and the best pendant for a space almost always comes down to what you want the light itself to do. Focus onto a surface, fill a volume with diffused glow, or anchor a room with a vertical silhouette. Three different jobs, three different pendants. As the authorized Canadian dealer for Louis Poulsen, Muuto, and Audo Copenhagen, we ship pendant lighting from London, Ontario to every province and territory. Here are the three we recommend most often and the spaces each one tends to feel made for.
Louis Poulsen PH 5
The PH 5 is Poul Henningsen's 1958 three-shade pendant, and it is the lamp that built the entire Louis Poulsen reputation for glare-free light. The three concentric shades are calculated so that no matter where you sit at the table, you do not see the bulb. What you see instead is a clean, even pool of light on the surface below, with a soft wash of ambient light spilling outward. Seventy years later, nothing does this job better.
The PH 5 is a focused-light pendant. Its geometry concentrates light onto the surface beneath it, which is exactly why it has been the default over dining tables for three generations. It excels anywhere a specific surface matters: a dining table, a kitchen island, a breakfast nook, a bar. The room where the PH 5 really earns its place is the condo dining area with an 8-foot ceiling and an open-concept layout where the dining bleeds into the living room with no wall between them. The downlight does the work that architecture would normally do, carving the dining zone out of the open plan and telling everyone walking in where the room actually is. Prices run $1,790 for the standard enamel colourways and go up to $2,245 for the copper and brass finishes. The standard whites and monochrome editions behave like architectural anchors and stay quiet in the room. The coloured editions (Hues of Blue, Hues of Green, Hues of Orange) do something completely different. They turn the fixture into the room's personality piece and make the dining area feel like a decision rather than a default.
The coloured PH 5 editions are the ones I push when a client has a quiet room and needs something to fight for it. In a space with white walls and a walnut table, a Hues of Orange pendant stops being a light fixture and starts being the reason the room feels designed.
Jenna, Interior Design Specialist
Hang the PH 5 28 to 34 inches above the tabletop. Most first-time buyers hang pendants too high. Trust the low end of that range. The light pools better, the shades feel proportional, and the room reads more intimate from the doorway. See current PH 5 finishes and lead times.
Muuto Strand Pendant
The Muuto Strand is the softest pendant on this page, and it is the one I pull off the shelf when a client is lighting a living room, a bedroom, or a long run over a kitchen island. The shade is built from Cocoon composite sprayed over a steel frame in a three-step process, and the resulting material diffuses light the way paper does. Warm, even, and glowing outward in every direction. The silhouette is organic and sculptural without being loud.
The Strand is a volume pendant. It lights the space around it as much as the space beneath it, which makes it the right call anywhere ambient glow matters more than a focused pool. Over a living room seating area, a bedside, a reading chair, or a dining table in a room where the surrounding walls want to feel lit too. The room where the Strand comes into its own is the great room with a vaulted ceiling: a new-build or renovation, open-concept kitchen-living-dining on one level, ceiling running 10 to 14 feet at the peak. Standard-scale pendants disappear in that volume. A single large Strand over the island or a pair flanking the living room seating area fills the upper third of the space and stops the room from reading like a warehouse with furniture in it. The closed variant comes in three sizes: small ($1,416), medium ($1,465), and large ($1,836). There is also an open variant for spaces that need a more transparent silhouette. The small and medium sizes cluster beautifully in twos and threes over a kitchen island. The large is the volume-filler.
The Strand is the pendant I use when a ceiling feels empty. An open-plan living room with a vaulted ceiling swallows most fixtures whole. The Strand fills the volume without demanding attention, and you feel the room finish around it.
Jenna, Interior Design Specialist
For a kitchen island, hang the Strand 30 to 40 inches above the countertop and space multiples 30 to 36 inches apart. For a living room or entryway, the bottom of the pendant should clear 7 feet from the floor unless you are deliberately using it as an accent over a coffee table or reading chair. View current Strand Pendant sizes and configurations.
Audo Copenhagen Hashira Pendant
The Audo Copenhagen Hashira is the one I recommend when a client wants the pendant to do the talking. Where the PH 5 is engineered and the Strand is soft, the Hashira is architectural. A vertical column of raw fabric stretched over an internal frame, throwing a warm diffused glow outward through the shade. It is the closest thing in this category to a lantern.
The Hashira is a vertical pendant, and that single characteristic is what defines where it excels. Its column silhouette runs with the vertical lines of the room instead of cutting across them, which makes it the pendant of choice in rooms where proportions matter: narrow entryways, tight hallways, bedside tables with limited horizontal clearance, and rooms with lower ceilings where a wide round pendant would visually drop the ceiling plane. A pair of small Hashiras flanking a bed or framing a console reads symmetrical without feeling formal. A single large Hashira over a round dining table is one of the cleanest statements you can make in a contemporary room. The Hashira comes in two sizes with a single fabric shade finish: small at $775, large at $1,660. The large is tall enough to anchor a double-height foyer without looking apologetic. The fabric shade is the detail that changes the whole equation. Where enamel and glass bounce light, fabric absorbs and releases it, and the room feels quieter around a Hashira than around almost any other pendant at this price.
The Hashira is the pendant I reach for when a client says the room needs to feel calm. The fabric shade softens every hard surface in the space. Stone countertops, glass tables, polished floors all read warmer with a Hashira above them.
Jenna, Interior Design Specialist
The Hashira rewards rooms that already have some architectural character: stone, exposed wood, a piece of art on the wall behind it. The fabric shade softens those surfaces and warms the room at the same time. View the Hashira Pendant and current stock.
Frequently Asked Questions
How high should I hang a pendant light over a dining table?
28 to 34 inches above the tabletop is the working range. The lower end of that range produces a more intimate pool of light and tends to look better in rooms with 8 to 9 foot ceilings. Go higher if your ceiling is vaulted or if you are using a larger-diameter pendant that would feel cramped lower down.
How do I choose the right pendant size for my space?
Over a dining table, the pendant width should be about half to two-thirds the width of the table. Over a kitchen island, either run multiple smaller pendants spaced 30 to 36 inches apart or use one larger statement piece. In a living space, size to the volume of the room rather than the furniture. A tall ceiling needs a pendant that fills the upper third of the space.
Can I use the same pendant in a dining room and a living room?
Some pendants cross over, most do not. The PH 5 is engineered for a dining table and looks odd floating over a couch. The Strand works in almost any room because it behaves like a lantern. The Hashira works wherever you want the fixture to be the quietest loudest thing in the room.
Are these pendants dimmable?
The PH 5, Strand, and Hashira are all compatible with standard dimmer switches when paired with the correct LED bulb. We recommend confirming bulb compatibility with your electrician before installation, particularly if you are integrating the pendant into a smart home system.
Do these pendants ship across Canada?
Yes. As authorized Canadian dealers for Louis Poulsen, Muuto, and Audo Copenhagen, we ship every pendant directly from London, Ontario to every province and territory. Each fixture arrives in original manufacturer packaging, authentic and sourced directly from Denmark.
Three pendants, three different ways of moving light through a room. The PH 5 concentrates light onto a surface and is the fixture that makes a dining table feel finished. The Strand diffuses light outward and fills living spaces and great rooms where a smaller pendant would disappear. The Hashira runs vertical where the others run round, softens the surfaces around it, and takes the architectural lead in rooms with strong proportions. The best one for your space is the one that matches the job the light needs to do.
If you are still narrowing down which fits your room, the Habitus Design Studio works with clients across Canada to plan lighting and furniture room by room. Whether it is a single pendant or a full renovation, our designers can help you arrive at the right choice before you commit.
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