A few weeks ago I said I was thinking about a fandelier for our bedroom, and I asked for input from anyone who has experience with fandeliers. Since we live in Central Texas, going without a ceiling fan in our bedroom is not an option. I’ve kept ceiling fans out of every other room in our house, but we like to sleep in a cold wind tunnel, so a ceiling fan is essential here. And we’re used to a large, powerful fan, so I had my doubts that a Fandelier would be enough.
And honestly, after reading all of your comments (which were very divided), I decided it would probably be best if we just stuck with our regular ceiling fan. There are some things I’m willing to compromise on, but my sleep quality isn’t one of them. After reading all of your comments I had decided that I would keep the ceiling fan we had and probably paint the silver parts gold and then flip the blades over so that the lighter wood color shows on the other side of the blades instead of that really dark brown color.
Not only had I read all of your comments and posts, but at this point I had at least 200 customer reviews ready for the Fandeliers that I thought might look good in our bedroom. These customer reviews were also mixed, so they didn’t convince me that a Fandelier would work for us. But then someone posted a link to this Katia fandelier from Ballard Designs (affiliate link). And of course I wanted it immediately. That was the most beautiful fandelier I’ve ever seen.
I liked everything about it, from the shape to the bead design. And while there aren’t many reviews, all of the reviews are five-star reviews. Obviously that caught my attention. But it also comes with a pretty high price. While most of the Fandeliers I had looked at were in the $150 to $300 range, this one cost a little over $1,500.
As much as I loved it, I think you all know me well enough to know that there was no way I would spend more than $1,500 on a lamp or ceiling fan for our bedroom. But I took note of the design to see why this model was rated so highly across all five-star reviews while others seemed to have mixed reviews. And I think the reasons are (1) the overall size of 20 inches wide and (2) the fan is located at the bottom of the design, which allows for better airflow than the designs where the fan is placed further into the shade and the lights are below the fan.
So I went looking for something similar – beaded, 20″ wide and the fan at the bottom with the lights at the top. And that search led me to this 20-inch beaded fandelier from Wayfair (affiliate link). It’s not as pretty as the one from Ballard Designs, but it’s a fraction of the price at $152. And it has a rating of 4.9 out of 20 reviews. So we decided to give it a try.
When I unwrapped it I was so excited because it was beautiful! But upon closer inspection I thought it was broken because two of the wires holding the beads were loose. I thought they were broken so I was ready to send it back and buy a new one. But first I decided to take off the metal cover and see if it was actually broken or if the wires had simply come loose. It turns out that the little metal pieces that hold the wires in place had just come loose (or they weren’t tightened enough to begin with) and slipped off, but they were still there. So I simply reattached these, tightened them, hooked them into the metal piece and then reattached the cover. It was a very simple solution.
Installation was pretty easy. I had to move the mattress out of the way so I could attach the ladder into the bed frame. That was the hardest part of the whole process. So I took down the ceiling fan and installed the Fandelier while Matt sat on his exercise bike. The entire process went smoothly. And when it was finished, I liked the way it looked.
But of course I was very curious about the fan. The fan looks so tiny that I doubted it would produce enough airflow for our liking. But let me tell you, I was wrong to doubt! The fan has six speed settings and even at the lowest speed it produces plenty of airflow!
This fan may be tiny, but it’s mighty! And because the fan is located at the bottom of the device, we don’t have to be directly underneath it to feel it. I can feel it quite well when I sit in bed and lean against the headboard. I can even feel it when I sit in my chair.
I’m actually so shocked at how well this little fan works. As I said, we like sleeping in a cold wind tunnel at night, but even with the fan running at full speed it’s too much for us. It has six speeds and we slept on four of them. This small fan on four (out of six speeds) feels like the equivalent of our large fan on medium (out of three speeds), the setting we always used on our large fan at night. So I can’t imagine we’ll ever need to use the highest two settings on this device.
I am so impressed with this Fandelier. We haven’t had it very long, but so far it’s a solid five-star rating from me. I’m also very impressed with how quiet the fan is, even on the highest setting.
I couldn’t take any pictures of it from a distance because just as I was finishing the installation, Matt had finished using his exercise bike and wanted to go back to bed and watch TV. I was hoping he would sit in his chair for a while so I could get some good full frame photos, but he wasn’t up to it. So for now I’m just sharing this one picture from a distance where you can take a look at it in the background.
I love this little fandelier so much that I’m thinking of buying the same one for the living room. So consider me a convert. I am now a big Fandelier fan. But I think the design makes all the difference. And when I buy more in the future, I will always look for ones that have the lighting at the top of the fixture and the fan at the bottom of the fixture so that the shade doesn’t block the airflow. I really think this is the key to avoiding the wind tunnel effect that so many people complain about, where you feel like you have to be directly under the fandelier to feel the airflow.
