My dining room has one six-arm chandelier, a pair of three-arm wall sconces, two lighted china cabinets, a picture light over Uncle Oscar, and a pair of lamps. The room is most inviting and looks best when all of the light sources are illuminated, yet dimmed to an intimate level. I bought the chandelier in Brussels and carried it back on the plane. The sconces are from a flea market in the south of France, and the lamps are from a local antique store. I love them all.

Always combine several types of sources in a room. Antique stores, junk shops, thrift shops, and tag sales are all wonderful sources for interesting fixtures. Any light fixture, no matter how dingy or dark, can be refinished or rewired. Remember too, that other objects can be made into lamps. I've seen the bronzed baby shoe, fire nozzle (from a retired fireman), urn, vase, an old newel post, and even a stack of books transformed into a lamp. I say it's not so much what you have but what you do with it that makes any interior work. It's in the mix. Numerous kinds of light fixtures are on the market. Here are some of the basics styles. Mix them up.

- Pendants
A pendant hangs down from the ceiling like a pendant from your neck. It come in many shapes and forms and can be used in many rooms. Pendants can be closed at the bottom, directing light upward, or open at the bottom, directing light downward. If they direct light down and the bulb is above eye level, use a frosted bulb to diminish glare.

- Chandeliers
A chandelier is a type of pendant, only more so. It is multiarmed with branches that extend in many directions to disperse light evenly, and not just down onto the table but outward and up toward the ceiling, too. The more arms a chandelier has, the more light.

Because I'm a decorator, I get this question almost every time a customer installs a pendant, chandelier, or hanging fixture of any kind over a table, "How high should it be?" I asked about 12 well-respected lighting dealers, and the answer was univeral. There should be 30 to 34 inches between the bottom of the fixture and the top of the table. That's their rule of thumb.

If your chandelier or pendant looks skimpy over your table, hang it on the low side of the dealers' formula ( 30 inches above the table), or it will appear even smaller than it is. If it looks large, hang it at the high end (34 inches), or it will appear overpowering.

When hanging a chandelier in hard-to-reach places, such as a stairwell or on a cathedral ceiling, changing the bulbs won't be easy. Marcia, a client has to use a tall stepladder to change the light bulbs in the chandelier in her cathedral-ceilinged master bath. I warned her against the cathedral ceiling for this reason. But once she had it, she needed a chandelier because nothing else was the right scale. This choice was dangerous from the outset with slippery marble floors and no soft landing. Marcia threw her back out moving the tall ladder last week.

Don't be afraid of multiple arms as long as the chandelier is easily accessible. If you put a chandelier with a million arms in a hard-to-reach place, you will mount that tall ladder a million times a year because bulbs never all burn out the same day. Long-lasting bulbs can last twice as long as standard bulbs, but they do not come in every size and shape. If you require candelabra-type bulbs, you're out of luck. They only come as strong as 60 watts. There are flame-tip or torpedo-tip ones. If you are thinking of dressing the bulbs up with lampshades, use torpedo-tip bulbs.

Another way to dress up a chandelier is with a bobeche. This is the little collar or plate at the base of a chandelier. It can also be used with a candlestick lamp. Originally designed to catch wax drippings, a bobeche continues now as ornament or on chandelier-type fixtures.

- Sconces
A sconce is a wall-mounted light fixture. Generally, sconces should be installed about 60 to 70 inches up from the floor, depending on the ceiling height. In the case of a sconce with a curved arm, such as the type that simulates a chandelier, the direction of the arm will help you figure out exactly where to put the electrical socket. If the sconce curves up, hang it at the lower, 60-inch range and at the higher range if it curves down.

When a sconce faces toward the ceiling, it illuminates much more universally than when it faces down. Try it with a twist-larm lamp if you don't believe me. Virtually all bathroom sconces should face down. Otherwise heat and moisture will get trapped inside the shade. As a result, the bulb and even the fixture will burn out frequently.

On two recent jobs, I found sconces that were positioned too low over the mantels. They looked crowded, as if they were sitting there. When the electricians located the wiring, they must have based the position of the socket on the height of the fireplace opening or surround, without factoring in the height of the mantel. Sconces should sit at least 10 inches above the mantel, but 14 to 16 inches is usually better.

- Lamps
The lamps here refer to the flexible, portable sources of light in a room that can be added or subtracted without an electrician. You just plug them into an existing outlet. The placement of lamps is very important. If you are going to read, write, or work by lamplight, you shouldn't be in your own shadow. Lamps provide localized pools of light, charming and cozy as long as there is no glare. To prevent glare, the bottom of the shade should be at eye level when you're seated so you're not looking up into the bulb. But this rule doesn't work when I nap on my sectional. Looking up at a light-bulb drives me crazy. In this case, a lamp with a covered bulb, like those old-fashioned ones with an interior milk-glass bowl and an outer shade, or a converted oil lamp with a globe, would prevent the problem.

- Torchiere
This is another type of floor lamp. It is usually a tall, thin, standing lamp that directs light toward the ceiling. Against a light or white ceiling, it can bounce off a good deal of illumination. It's not a good idea to try this with a ceiling that has been painted a color.

Halogen bulbs are often used with torchieres because the ceiling does not object to glare, so these bulbs can generate their bright, white light without offense. As furnishings, torchieres are dramatic, too, and great for adding light in corners where you don't have room for a table lamp.

- Track Lights
Track lights can be used for general lighting or for spot lighting. The heads of these fixtures are clipped onto a ceiling-mounted track. Their advantage is flexibility. Lights can be added or subtracted and angled to highlight hart or a specific area. Sometimes, you can switch the housing for another style, but basically you don't have a lot of variety from which to choose.

A disadvantage is the metal track across the ceiling, which is usually unattractive. Because the lights are set at an angle, exposing the bulb, track lights inevitably shine into someone's eyes, and the person has to avoid glare. I am always twisting and turning them to find the right, glare-free pitch. Track lighting goes in and out of style. Look for unobtrusive miniature versions.

- Ceiling-Mounted Fixtures
While ceiling-mounted fixtures come from the same electrical box as a pendant, they do not hang down. They sit on the ceiling the way a stud earring sits on the ear. Surface-mounted ceiling fixtures will illuminate a large area, so they are used for general light.

- Recessed Lights
Their look is architectural, and their light dispersion is confined and limited. You need an awful lot of recessed lights to get teh amount of illumination achieved with a single ceiling-mounted fixture. I have three in my kitchen over the work surface by the sink. They work fine. But if you need a lot of them, the ceiling will look spotty, all punctured and pockmarked. When planning recessed lighting, be sure to lay out a nice even grid that will form a neat, uniform pattern on the ceiling. You can arrange recessed fixtures in a straight line, in a square, or in a circular pattern, for example. Avoid a random pattern, which can look cluttered, and always try to use just enough recessed lights to provide the maximum amount of light you need.

To eliminate glare, install the kind of recessed fixtures that place the bulb high inside the canister. No one likes to stare at a naked lightbulb. It's hard on the eye, and it makes all tasks, from reading to slicing, difficult. Once upon a time, recessed ceiling lights beamed directly and unflatteringly straight down. Now you can direct eyeball fixtures to accent art or illuminate a particular work area. These can even be angled to distribute light in a general manner.

Hi hats, or recessed canister lights, get their name from their shape, which is like a high top hat or a coffee can. Only their metal rims are exposed. Before even considering hi hats, make sure the area above your ceiling is high enough to accommodate them. Hi hats don't illuminate a room as much as they create beams of light that, like a headlight or a flashlight, start narrow and widen into a conical ray. Think about a spotlight on your head. It's not attractive, nor is it comfortable. Mounted close to the wall, hi hats can create a disturbing scalloped effect. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use these fixtures. Just don't install them directly above where people will be standing or sitting. They are great in corners, in front of windows, and around nooks and crannies. I don't recommend them for task lighting, however. Take the kitchen of one of my earliest clients, Muriel. The ceiling was littered with these fixtures and yet when Muriel leaned over to slice a tomato, she was working in her own shadow.

Chandeliers, table lamps, recessed lights -- all types of lighting are powered from the same electrical source. Your electrician will need to run wires and install boxes, giving you time to select the appropriate fixtures. The first decision you must make is how many connections and outlets you want and where to put them. Don't expect the electrician to tell you how high to hang the chandelier or to recommend the type of dimmer switch to use, either. Although you're not the expert, you'll probably have to make these decisions.

It has been my experience that it's important to make sure your electrician folds a little extra wire into the fixture box in case you have to make an adjustment. Maybe you're not exactly sure where a ceiling fixture will be located. Or you may want a pendant over a kitchen island that has both a sink and an overhang for seating. You may not know early on if you need more headroom near the sink and less by the seating area. That additional wire will give you some leeway to move the fixture.