I recently had a conversation with a reader about how to choose a ceiling fan. Not stylish by nature, they’re often non-negotiable (especially in the South). While I would rather have a big, beautiful statement light above our bed, I would rather not sweat while I sleep. The bedroom ceiling fan isn’t going anywhere.
photo credit: Caroline Lima Photography
When it come to choosing a ceiling fan, I definitely think less is more. For our room, we used a $45 one (from Lowe’s) with no overhead light. (If you need overhead lighting, I’d go with one simple light like this.)
Not every element in a space has to be a decorative statement. Sometimes, it just has to be functional—and maybe ignored, a little. I’m personally not big on painting blades, adding drum shades or other other decoration in at attempt to disguise it. I’m not a “fan” of anything that attracts more attention.
What do you think? Are fans non-negotiable in your house, too?
Absolutely. Living in the desert there is no way we could live without them.
For those who think bedroom ceiling fans are annoying/unsightly/fit to be nothing but removed: that tune changes REAL QUICK when, say, your old air conditioner kicks the bucket in the middle of August’s brutal heat and you have to wait a day or two for the replacement. I know from experience.
They are definitely non-negotiable in our bedrooms and kitchen in Virginia. I like fans without lights for the bedrooms.
I’ve never had a problem with ceiling fans to be honest. To me, they give a room a laid-back look, esp. when they’re rotating at low speed.
The ceiling fan has been a huge source of debate in our house! And you are right, I want things in my home to be beautiful but they also need to function.
We have 4 ceiling fans in our house. I totally agree with everything you said, however the ceiling fan the previous owners put over the dining room table is definitely coming down soon. They crossed the line with that one :-)
The previous owners put a ceiling fan over the dining room, too! Seriously? We’re upgrading the rest of the fans (7 total in about 1,400 sqft!) but the one in the dining room is being converted to a hanging pendant. Glad I’m not the only one : ]
I can just see you putting things on your napkins so they don’t blow away :)
We love ceiling fans. Okay, I should note that we are also in the south! LOL We pretty much have the fan over our bed going year round – only in the very coldest temps do we turn it off. I miss that if I go somewhere that does not have a fan!!! It’s not so much keeping me cool, it’s the movement of the air, I think. They are great when airing out the house or when you have windows open – moves the air through the house. I think there are some very pretty ceiling fans. We have one in our master bedroom, our greatroom and our sunroom. I can have prettier/fancier lights in other rooms, but there are times when comfort outranks looks. Besides, you can find nice looking ceiling fans!
Ceiling fans are like the oddly placed thermostat or the heating/ac vents. You would be miserable without them! Besides, if I didn’t have the fan in the beautifully decorated room then I would not be in the beautifully decorated room!
Like dental visits and mammograms – not pretty, but necessary!
Agreed. We live in the south and we have ceiling fans in several rooms. I love beautiful light fixtures, but not so much that I’ll forfeit comfort. We did update the 80’s fans (think oak and brass!) when we moved into our home a few years ago, so now they don’t bother me at all.
I LOVE that sun mirror!
love the circulating air but that muffled whomp whomp as it turns drives us nuts!
I live in the Midwest and we have them in every bedroom and some of our living rooms. My downstairs one has a heater element and I have used it all winter to warm up our tv room! While most of mine were from the previous owner I am looking at updating them with plain white ones so that they just sort of blend in to the ceiling. I think no matter what part of the country you are in they are a good functional addition to any home.
I agree that ceiling fans are a necessity and I suppose especially in the south.
After I read your article I started thinking about the ceiling fans in my house.
I never really counted them before, but there are ten.
Most of them are Old Time Hunters actually made in Memphis before they sent those jobs to China.
If you come upon an Old Time Hunter made in America, snatch it up.
My first one is 37 years old and most of the rest are 22 years old.
They still look good and run well.
Maryland has hot muggy summers – ceiling fans are a must. We have six of them in our house.
Yes, thank you for saying this. We live in Texas and I can assure you that everyone here has ceiling fans here. I always think the designers who protest them so much do not live in the south. I try to buy as simple ones as possible but they are a necessity. They are in all the bedrooms, living rooms and my husband’s office.
I agree, they are definitely a necessity in the summer. I like the way the color of your fan blends with the other elements of your room, but I’m curious if there was a reason you didn’t do all white to make it “disappear” if you will?
I just thought that the darker fan looked better with the bed and I kind of liked the contrast with the white ceiling.
Amen! Preach it!
I first saw ceiling fans used in a home when I was a teenager and my family lived overseas in a mostly hot and always humid climate. I loved the Casablanca ambience with a lazy (or not so lazy) fan circling overhead. And the hum of that old window air conditioner and the fan above my bed were heaven, especially at night.
I can’t do without ceiling fans now either. Then there’s that electricity bill.
While the idea of a ceiling fan works for the air flow, it doesn’t always work for allergens. My husband can’t stand the idea of a ceiling fan blowing dust around the room. (We all know that it can get dusty from time to time. Wink, Wink…) So we will be replacing our fan in our bedroom for a statement light fixture. It’s funny how people align themselves with things. Ceiling fan vs. No ceiling fan….Cats vs Dogs…Coke vs. Pepsi…and so on and so on. By the way, I do love the ceiling fan you chose. I actually bought 2 of those for my mom for Christmas. She has a large living room that for some reason had two different light fixtures. So to streamline the look I chose matching black fans. It looks great and functional too!!
I’ve had a couple clients who want me to find a “gorgeous ceiling fan” for them. The fact is they just don’t exist. (Unless you want to drop some serious dough, and even then they aren’t great.)
I’m with you…a ceiling fan is just a functional element that can’t be decorative.
Thank you for being a decorator with excellent taste who lives in reality!
I’ve seen too many design shows where the design team is opposed to ceiling fans in bedrooms and removes them – I think that’s just crazy! We’re in the Midwest with ceiling fans in every bedroom that run from May to October.
Thanks for the excellent tips and great advice on how to make these necessities more attractive. :)
I remember getting irritated while watching Trading Spaces because they ALWAYS removed the ceiling fans. :) Fans are definitely a necessity in bedrooms. I agree about keeping them simple. We don’t use the fan in our living room that much, so I’ve been thinking about replacing it with a pretty light fixture / chandelier of sorts. :) They’ve got to stay in the bedrooms, though!
Ceiling fans: TOTALLY negotiable (and we live in the deep South!). Air conditioning: NON negotiable. (no fans necessary!) :-D
We have one in the master bedroom and we’re installing 5 more. We’re in Virginia, but I learned to appreciate ceiling fans really quickly after moving to NYC where air conditioning is non-existent.
I’m not crazy about the look of them either, but they are a must in a North Carolina summer!!
Our ceiling fans are all brass and wood. I spray painted one white and love the result – it’s barely noticeable against the white ceiling.
Whats the point of a pretty room if it is not comfortable to sit or sleep there? Put up a simple fan and move on!
i totally agree with you!!! i don’t want them getting any more attention than necessary, but i need my fans… especially when i go to sleep in the summer!
Once again, I love your down-to-earth take on home decor. I very much so care about the decor and aesthetic of my home, but we have fans in every bedroom and the family room and I can’t imagine ever taking one down because of looks. And actually, I don’t think they detract from the looks of any of the rooms we have them in. Even though the a/c technically keeps us cool enough, the fan adds a “breeze” that we find calming (and additionally cooling!). It must be a regional thing because in Atlanta, even the most beautifully decorated homes have ceiling fans more often than not. So, yes, non-negotiable here :)
despite my love of glammy chandeliers in the bedroom, we just HAVE to have a fan in our bedroom to keep air moving! summers in the midwest are HOT and you need all the air flow you can get! i’m with you on keeping them as a “forget about it” functional piece that doesn’t have to make a statement!
Oh I am so glad you did this post! We moved into a home that has a ceiling fan in all the bedrooms and in the family room. The previous owner selected simple fans like yours for the bedrooms but went a little Tommy Bahamas in the family room with a fan with Palm frond looking blades!! Ahhh!! I am so going to get the one you list! Thanks so much!!
Could not agree with you more! They are a MUST in our household (we live in Montgomery, Alabama). We use them in the winter, too, just to have some air movement in the house. I’m with you on trying to disguise the fan, too – I try to make ours the last thing people want to focus on. I don’t need a fancy shade or jazzy color to add to the already giant elephant in the room ;)
In “Famously Hot” South Carolina, it is a non-negotiable!! Thanks for showing some fan love because they can really be an eye-sore to decorate around.
I agree! Not only do they make our home more comfortable but we have been able to forgo using our air conditioner in the summer (except during the hottest part) and save money. :) It is hard to find decent looking ones though. When we remodeled a few years ago new ceiling fans were the hardest decision we made!! We have them in all our bedrooms, family room, kitchen and living room. :O
I just had this conversation with my fiancé over the weekend. I desperately want to put a chandelier in our master bedroom. We live in Florida. I quickly lost this debate but I ultimately agree; it’s non-negotiable! I would have regretted it after waking up in pool of sweat. Fans for Southern homes is a must.
I like your realistic approach to the fan. I say my husband evolved from a St. Bernard. He has to have his ceiling fan. Our upstairs gets hot from the western sun exposure. The ceiling fans do the trick.
We have had ceiling fans in every room of every house I’ve ever lived in and I hate them! We are currently building our home and will have no ceiling fans. We will have central air, and a pretty room fan that sits on a dresser for when we need circulation. Ill let you know if in still excited about it in August!
Sleeping with a fan on usually leaves me with a soar throat and my husband with flared up allergies, so I can luckily get rid of most of them. I do love the look of a tabletop fan. I have to say though, yours in all black looks really modern…and at that price, I could handle that one. :)
Southwest Florida: Two words…HEAT and HUMIDITY! Need I say more!
I agree with you completely! I hate sweating while I sleep. It seems silly to take down a ceiling fan if you have hot summers especially. There are so many other places in our house to add cute lighting, but in our living room and bedrooms we need the air movement. Plus I think my husband would move out if I removed our fans!
We used to have a gorgeous Casa Blanca fan with crystal globes. It was beautiful, with beautiful lighting, and served as the necessary fan. Centerpiece of our living room. But the computer chip got so old, it couldn’t be serviced any more. We really need to do something else with the temporary lamp my husband installed instead. I miss the beautify of the fan and did like its decorative statement!
Here in Ontario, Canada, we benefit from fans even with our very cold winters. Ceiling fans actually help with temperature control from central air conditioning and furnace heat, year round. With reversing switches, in winter we reverse the fan direction clockwise to gently move the air to the ceiling which pushes the warmer air that rises back down to make the room warmer. In summer, the switch goes to counter-clockwise to move the air down to give a wind cooling effect. I don’t mind ceiling fans, especially in rooms that get too warm or too cold seasonally, but my guys especially like portable fans blowing on them when they sleep (which drives me batty lol.)
Oh, and I really like the simple lines of the one in your bedroom. Ours needs to be replaces (white and brass with tulip shades circa 1999) and that looks like a great simple style.
I have a question about having a fan with no lights. Are your lamps hard wired to turn on by a light switch? I’m not crazy about having a fan with lights, but would have to fumble through a dark room to turn on the bedside lamps.
No, they’re not hardwired. But, I’m very good at fumbling :)
Maybe because I’m from super hot and humid Houston, but I’ve never had a problem with ceiling fans and don’t understand why they are so controversial! I agree with you, the simpler the better. I never even notice them unless they are a weird color or decorated in some way. I even have one in my kitchen! My mom had one in her bathroom when I was growing up, which I would definitely appreciate now while getting ready after a hot shower.
This fan debate has always puzzled me. I live in Texas and we have no ceiling fans at all in this house – we hate them, not just for their looks but we don’t like sleeping under them – and we don’t get hot. Maybe we crank up the AC too much, I’m not sure. Having the fan on while I sleep gives me very chapped lips and sometimes a sore throat. And I’m always afraid that it’ll fall on me while I’m sleeping, an irrational fear that has persisted from my childhood :)
They are non-negotiable at my house. We went with something affordable for our bedroom because no one but us notices it, but it took me months to pick one out for our family room. I agree with your less is more approach, and did my best to find something that had the right vibe, without being too showy. Turns out I LOVE the way it looks. And that is so weird to me. Who loves their ceiling fan?! Anyway, I’d love to get your thumbs up. You have such amazing taste. And, while you’re checking it out, any chance you’d recommend a simple ceiling schoolhouse light to coordinate (it’ll be about 12 feet away in an open concept room)? Thanks!
Check it out here: http://pinterest.com/pin/AwRwYQAQQJkBAZN4DycAAAA/
They are a must for us in rural Virginia. I love pretty lights but hate air conditioning. We have the windows open and fans running as much as possible during the summer. It saves a lot on the electric bill!
All our bedrooms and the family room have ceiling fans. We have this one (it comes in a smaller 3-light version as well, and the fan blades have a darker side that goes better with our house). They are simple, classic, but not distracting, budget friendly, and play well with other pretty lights.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_247857-79-53155_1z0vgax+1z10w97__?productId=4332196&Ntt=hunter+ceiling+fan&Ns=p_product_price|0&pl=1¤tURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_price%7C0%26Ntt%3Dhunter%2Bceiling%2Bfan%26page%3D1&facetInfo=Bronze
Luckily the central air keeps our house very cool except of course our master bedroom and the only two requirement my husband has is a television and the ceiling fan, so our television is mounted on the wall and the wall is painted black so I can’t see it when it’s off and the ceiling fan is the most basic fan they make so as to not distract from the rest of the room. It used to bother me a lot more when I was younger but the older I get the less I care and the more comfortable I want to be! (:
Living in Arizona, where the temp will probably reach 90 today, ceiling fans are a must. The one in my family room was running by 7am today in an attempt to avoid turning on the a/c (and paying that bill) for at least a few weeks. Comfort is just as important to me as pretty pillows are, so thanks for showing that a room can still be beautiful and functional!
This post makes me like you even more than I already did, if that’s possible. For a while there it seemed like the only thing more ubiquitous than chevron was bloggers removing ceiling fans.. Not only did I find this total subversion of comfort and function troubling, but I reject the conventional wisdom that ceiling fans are inherently unstylish. I think they can look great (as yours do!). But even if they were ugly as sin, we need them here in Alabama! Team ceiling fan!
Absolutely a must have in TX. We couldn’t sleep without them! So glad to see a designer acknowledge this. I searched a lot for “pretty” fans for our house.
Ceiling fans are a breath of fresh air in any home, and are essential in the South.
So tired of Decor Police making pronouncements about what is “in” or “out” in home decorating. Most of the items that make the “out” lists were too trendy to stand the test of time anyway. (Think trellis and chevron rugs, and industrial coffee tables made from metal and faux reclaimed wood. How bored with those are we? So 2010.) Ceiling fans, on the other hand, are timeless and functional. Choose a classic design without silly lights or embellishments. They are a Godsend for keeping flying bugs off an open porch in the summertime, and for breezy summer comfort inside warm-climate homes. They don’t cool a room, but circulating air provides a nice relaxed vibe. Choose well built, classic ceiling fans and enjoy the comfort they deliver. We use ours 3 seasons of the year.
Had to remove my ceiling fan in the bedroom. Despite climbing up a ladder to dust that thing every day, my allergies made me miserable. I had even purchased an expensive, industrial air purifier to put in the bedroom. NOTHING helped! I didn’t make the connection until one day, while trying to figure out why I had constant, severe allergies, my doctor asked, “Do you have a ceiling fan in your bedroom?” When I said I had, his response was, “Get rid of it or, at the very least, keep it turned off. All those things do is spread dust around, no matter how clean you keep your house!”
So, I turned it off for two weeks straight. Guess what? Allergies improved immensely and I felt just as cool. (All I had to do to stay cool was set the AC two degrees cooler.) After a year a having it off, I finally took the thing down. (Why have it if I am not using it?)
So, if you have allergies, it’s best to get rid of them!