Billiard Lighting: Great Billiard Rooms Have Great Lighting!

Billiard Lighting comes in all shapes and sizes! And yes some lights/lamps are bigger than others but bigger isn’t always better. You need to take into account the overall size of your billiard room and more importantly the size of your billiard table.

Billiard Lighting: Keep Your Eyes Focused On The Cue Ball Not The Shadows!

That’s right, focus during billiard play can become a problem after a few hours especially if the lighting you have is too bright, too large or too close to the table. Before you know it you’ll have a red eye or dry eye from the lights and you don�t need that during a night of fun. Billiard room lighting is important though. It adds atmosphere and also the necessary lighting to keep the games going strong all night long.

Besides having eye problems you’ll want to get rid of distracting shadows that hide under the balls and the cushions. That is actually what good billiard lighting does for you; it rids your table of shadows by evenly lighting your table from cushion to cushion. This again goes back to the size of your table; if you have a 7-foot bar room pool table then a 1-swag lamp may do the trick. For 8-foot regular and especially 9 foot professionally sized tables you’re going to most likely need a 3-swag lamp or lights equivalent to keep the lighting just right for the great billiard play.

So how high SHOULD billiard lamps hang above your table? Well, one way to come close to a good distance is to hang it at the same height as your nose when standing by the table. To get it even closer a 30-inch distance is usually good. And to make sure you totally rid yourself of shadows raise or lower your lamp until the light from the lamp reaches the sides of the table.

Types Of Billiard Lighting

Swag Lamps / Shade Lamps

The basic lamp or billiard lighting you see in many barrooms is the swag lamp or shade lamp. These types of lamps look great and come in many different colors and designs. From professional sports teams and college sports teams to popular drink products like pop and beer companies and so much more.

You can find 1 Swag, 2 Swag, 3 Swag and 4 Swag lamps to use as your billiard lighting. Again it really depends on how large your table as to how much light you may need. On the lampshade itself, you’ll have your teams name and logo or favorite drink, car company and much more. The lights are attached to one long pole that hangs down by a chain attached to your ceiling.

Tiffany Style Lighting

Tiffany style billiard lighting is similar to swag lighting except for the lights, usually, 3 are below one large rectangular lampshade usually measuring around 30 inches to 40 inches in length. It depends on personal style as to whether you’d prefer swag lighting or Tiffany style lighting but both do look great and work the same. Tiffany style to me has a more “WOW” effect being they look rather large and have your favorite teams name spread across them surrounded by your team colors in glass or glass-like material. Also many Tiffany style billiard lights have some great colors and designs the swag lamps just can’t compete with

Some of the these larger Tiffany style billiard lights come with just two lights instead of three, if that’s the case then those are better fit for a 7 and possibly an 8 foot table. You’ll definitely need 3 lights for a professional 9-foot table length though.

Other Billiard Lighting

There are other types of billiard room lighting that would go great in your billiard room. A free standing swag lamp around 4 to 6 feet tall would be perfect around sitting areas. Again with your favorite team, drink or just come in cool colors and designs on them look great.

Also if you have a bar area, bar top lamps with your favorite football team helmet as a base or other sports teams logo would look great.

Lighting is very important to a billiard room. You need lots of light in the right places to keep away the shadows and to ease eyestrain as the night wears on. Too much light through and you’re in for a few headaches. Just don’t get too fancy with too many lights hanging here and there. You need one above your billiard table and one above your poker table and that’s about it. Otherwise, your normal room/basement lighting will keep your room well lit. And remember you don’t need 3 swag lighting above a poker table, 1 Swag is good enough. You only need the 3 Swag lights for larger pool tables or in rooms that are poorly lit in order to once again keep those shadows away.

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