Billiard Lighting
How to Pick the Perfect Pool Table Light
Without light, you can’t enjoy a good ‘ol game of pool. Likewise, you can’t admire your billiards room and all of the effort you put into it without proper light either!
This is the exact reason why you need to pick the perfect pool table light that works for you, your room, and your budget.
With that said, how exactly does one pick the “right” or “perfect” billiard light? Simple, they choose the most practical and most relevant fixture that fits in their room and does what it is suppose to do (which is to illuminate the billiards table and room properly).
Here are the main points we are going to be covering that you need to evaluate, which in turn will allow you to pick the perfect billiard light for you:
- Style choice
- Length of your pool table (or any table)
- Amount of bulbs
- Distance from the table bed to your fixture
- Other lights (such as table or floor lamps)
We are going to talk about each one of these, and what you should be thinking about when purchasing a pool table light for your game room.
Lets start off with style.
Style choice
This one is really dependent on what type of style your room is, or what you plan for it to be.
Here is a list of some common styles of lights and rooms that people frequently gear their game rooms towards:
- Antique
- Contemporary
- Classic
- Modern
- Tiffany
- Sports
Obviously there are more and they don’t all have to be exact to the point; especially since it is your call to make these types of choices.
The only thing with “style” is to try keeping it in line. Think about it, an antique or tiffany styled light won’t really fit in with a modern styled room; and vice versa. Just ensure that the light you get matches your room, otherwise it may look off!
Length of your pool table (or any game table)
Most commonly people purchase pool table lights for well, their pool table. But they are also often bought for other game tables or even just lighting for their game / entertainment room.
For pool tables specifically, the most common length is between 7 and 9 feet long. Getting the illumination of the table isn’t that hard, just some proper considerations will go extremely far in getting it right.
For smaller tables (such as 7 feet) you obviously want to go for the shorter fixtures, which is around 45″ in length or less. Whereas with a longer table (such as 9 feet), a light of 45″ in length or more will suffice. And again, all of these numbers aren’t set in stone, then can be altered with and adjusted to meet your own personal wants and needs.
For example, if you find a light of 48″ and have a 7 foot table that you simply LOVE; it’s not the end of the world just because it is a few inches over our recommended length for this sized table.
Just always keep in mind that typically longer tables obviously call for longer lights, and vice versa. But then again, there is no “science” behind this and its really just a general guideline.
Amount of bulbs (and their output)
This too is subjective because the number of lights in a fixture means very little when it comes to how much a light will output.
Of course, a fixture with 9 lights vs 3 will have much more ability (if chosen) to output more light, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Just because a fixture says it takes 100W light bulbs, doesn’t mean you have to use 100W lights. You can use less than that to output the amount of light that best fits your desires.
In theory, you could have a 3 light fixture output more than a 9 light fixture if you used higher light output lights for the 3 light fixture and less output lights for the 9 light fixture.
It all depends, but again this goes back to the previous points about table length. The longer it is, the more light you will probably need. But it doesn’t really matter on how many lights the fixture can hold, but rather what light bulbs you actually put into the fixture once you get it.
Distance from the table bed to your fixture
From the furthest most point of your light fixture to the bed of your pool table should be no less than 40 inches. Well, that is for tournament setups.
So while it can technically be any height above the table, this height of no less than 40 inches set by the World Pool-Billard Association is pretty much on point. Achieving the distance of around 40 to 50 inches above the bed of your table is going to provide the most even and proper light that you will need to play a good game of pool.
Other lights (such as table or floor lamps)
The light directly over your pool table should have some coordination with other lights in your room, such as side table or even floor lamps.
Why does it matter to include them in your decision making?
Well, firstly you don’t want too much light. The light that hits your pool table should be much greater than the light everywhere else in the room.
Secondly, you want everything to match. Obviously you don’t HAVE to, but matching never hurts. And when we say match, that doesn’t mean it has to be the same exact light design, from the same exact collection, from the same exact brand. Instead, aligning design styles is all you need.
For example, if you have a modern pool table light about your table, a modern table or floor lamp would suffice. Same with antique, tiffany, contemporary, and so on.
As long as the designs match in theory, it will work (in terms of matching design types). That’s about it for considerations for your other lights in the room!
Conclusion
We have covered all of the topics you should be thinking about when purchasing your own pool table light. From how long your fixture to be to height it should be from your table; you should have a much better understanding of the “guidelines” to properly lighting up your pool table.
With that said, people always have questions and we’d love to answer them. So, if you have anything to ask, please ask them in the comments down below!