IMO yes, you are on the right track here... if you really feel you must have them, get them so they are the least obvious in every room. A ceiling fan should not be the focal point of the room, and it will be if you make it unite with your furnishings by matching the wood, having brass accents, light kit, etc. Do you think you could try without the ceiling fans first? Maybe you won't need them. We moved to Dallas and took them all down except in DH's office spaces. Have not missed them one iota.

I love my ceiling fans. I have really modern and contemporary tastes and I think they are a necessity in my home. I travel from home four days out of the week and I miss the air movement most. I use my fans all year round. There are so many styles of fans, I think you should do some research and find a fan or a couple that float your boat. My fans are also really quiet. Don't know your style but I linked to modern fan. I have the Cirrus hugger in the bedrooms and the regular cirrus in the living room. These fans also provide supplemental light (halogen downlight).

Casablanca, Emerson and I am sure many other manufacturers make great fans for your review.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Modern Fans

I love ceiling fans. Mine are all white. I like them to blend in with the ceiling. But I also have white trim everywhere so that also blends. If you have dark trim and dark wood furniture, then I might want to have the fan blend with that.

I use my fans a lot. I like feeling the air move. It's very soothing. I'm a fan of fans!

I love ceiling fans too. I don't understand why some people are against them. They are a godsend in the summer. If you have birds, always have them off when your birds are out, though. Get whatever turns you on. What furniture/decorating style do you like?

I have white fans in all the bedrooms. This first picture is of our home in NC. We now live in FL so fans are a must. Some rooms still have the horrible brass. I am working on replacing them. Our last home had a bronze colored finish in a two story family room. I liked it so much better than the neighbors with plain white. Here is the last homes fan, its the best pic I have of it....too bad its showing the dusty lighter side of the blades. the other side of the blades was a medium brown wood tone.

Here is our current homes family room fan. We just replaced it, its made by Savoy House and cost me my left arm. But, I love it in this room. I like drawing attention to fixtures in main rooms.

IMHO, blending into the ceiling puts the fan in the 'utilitarian'-only category--it probably will have little visual impact. You'll spend many hours decorating the room--why not decorate with what's attached to the ceiling, too? You can make a decorative statement with the fan by considering either a modern or rich traditional metal or wood finish, esp in the LR. There's a lot out there that's not the cookie-cutter wood-with-brass-accents. Spend a bit of time surfing the web and you might just hit on a great surprise!

For me the fan color has to do with the feel I want the room to have or the style it's decorated in. We put white fans in our new great room because it's going to be a casual and light space. On the other hand I'm installing wood in the office as I want that fan to be more masculine to fit with the heavier furnishings in there.

This Casablanca fan was one I chose for my 80 year old bungalow in WI when I lived there. It was a 52" one with a remote control. I also used a ceiling medallion to make to finish the look. Boy, did it help cool the room in the summer time. When I first put the fan up I did not have central air conditioning there but I did add ac in the months before I moved so the house would sell.

Do you have to have them chosen and installed now, or can you just have the electrical/boxes put in to the ceiling and take your time deciding?

For example, today many of us have color on our ceilings as well as our walls - and so a white fan would not blend at all, but stand out.

Also, you may find that you don't need all those fans - and why spend the money?

Keep in mind that fans are also energy consumers - if left on when no one is in the room, they are serving no purpose, as the fans don't cool the air, but only move it, and that is only perceived when someone is in the space.

I'm with Pammyfay and Brutuses. I like ceiling fans when they suit the decor and bring something to the room. I would just as well have a floor fan in the room if my only option was plain white ceiling fans. I've installed many varied ceiling fans depending on the feel of the room. Our first house was historic, so I went with a Tiffany glass style, but our current house is more modern and transitional. Even the last white ceiling fan has a "style" to it with distressed beadboard and light shading on the blades.

If you do not care for the typical ceiling fan don't shop at Lowes and HD. All they have is builders grade 'oak&brass' ones.

For an apartment, which is smaller you may want to go with one with retractable blades. It won't take up too much space when not in use.

Or go with the squirrel cage model. This one below has a HEPA filter and will cleanse the air so it is doing something good when it is running even when no one is in the room.

Or rather than try to hide the fan, make it a focal pint of the room. It can look like a mobile or a piece of modern art:

{{!gwi}}

Industrial styles for warehouse loft living:

A single blade fan can work well for a smaller apartment and won't take up all the ceiling space:

{{!gwi}}

Your guests will never guess that this is a fan:

Fabric blade fan for a softer feel (and washable!):

Neato:

Also, make sure you really NEED a ceiling fan to circulate the air. If you have forced air heating system instead of radiators or baseboard electric, you can just run the furnace fan to circulate air in the house. A lot of people do not know this can be done I have found out.

Most of my ceiling fans are actually from Lowes and HD ;-) The Tiffany one was HD clearance, the bamboo one was a Lowes display model, the third I found on Craigslist but had been special ordered from Lowes, and the fourth was at a discount building supply place. They're certainly not as exotic as the beautiful ones Dilly Dally posted, but I'm sure none of those would have been in my budget (the most expensive I've bought was the Tiffany one for $99)

Gk5040, I love your new fan and that room is scrumptious.

Gk5040, what is the color of paint you have on that wall, please? It looks so pretty with your draperies and I'm thinking it might look good with my red sofa and chair.

OH DILLY!

thanks so much for all your input. Sounds like there are some varying opinions but you've all given me lots to think about.

I think I'm more of the mindset that the fan is not what I want to stand out in a room, but we'll see when i start looking.

Thank you!

OK, I was so excited to see one of my fans in Dilly's post that I hit the wrong key!
Anyway, the one that looks like the mobile (2nd row, the one on the left) is the one I have in my guestroom. When my sister pointed it out at Expo Design Center, I thought, she's gotta be nuts. But I love the fan! It's in a room that has a cathedral ceiling, so it looks fab. (I must admit, I also love my brushed chrome egg-shaped doorknobs, too! So even the basics don't need to look so basic!)

Oceanna, the color is from SW old color deck, its called Sesame. I love it, and also like the color one shade lighter called Raffia basket, that is in my living room. I just posted a bunch of photos for Brutuses, search for the post, it was just last week. The sesame color is one stick away from the popular Dromedary Camel. Both home's family rooms are the same color....I loved it so much and had recently painted it in the old home right before we moved....so I decided not to torture myself selecting colors...I chose the same colors.

Pammyfay, I was wondering what that "shout out" was for. I was puzzled until I read down further. LOL.

Obviously none of those fans are in my home. Those pics are all from retail sites. I was just trying to show that there is more to fans than a just choice between white or oak&brass. That fan is really cool. Did you ever post pics of it in the room, here in the photo gallery?

If a fan is really needed in each room also consider a floor standing model or tabletop style or even a wall mounted fan. They have lots of decorative styles and they can even be stored away out of season if desired.

gk5040 please tell me what colors you used in this room, they are lovely.
Chris

vavavoom, you are not going to regret installing ceiling fans. Thanks to the ceiling fans, our AC only runs about two weeks during the summer, and mostly at night. Saves us a lot on our utility bills, and makes me a lot more comfortable. I'm one of those people who is always cold.

If you go to Lowe's/HD, I think you'll be surprised at the selection of fans available. Ours do stock the basic oak-and-brass look, but there are many others available--even a really cute one with planes on the blades that would be perfect for a young boy's room.

We have the fan in equest17's second picture in our dining room. We replaced the shades that came with the fan with antique-look cut glass ones and installed the fan with an antique-look ceiling medallion. Looks great with all of our woodwork and vintage furniture.

My only note of caution has to do with the fans you pick. Check the type of light bulbs they take carefully. The gorgeous Craftsman-style fan in our living room only takes intermediate-base bulbs, which are a pain to find. One of our friends bought a very space-age fan and has to special order his bulbs. We've been much happier with the fans that take standard-base bulbs, because we can pick up spare bulbs when they're on sale.

Check out this fan at the Home Depot site!
Hampton Bay 52 In. Santa Cruz in Brushed Nickel Finish
Model AG712-BN+RED

Also try fanshack.com--they have more fan styles than you could ever dream of.

Here is a link that might be useful: A real

I "LOVE" ceiling fans, yes for the air movement, yes for the decorating potential....but the blades MUST be balanced. I hate it when the fan wobbles! What I've found is ...real wood blades vary too much to be weighted properly, so fake wood is best for the blades. And yes, I've tried taping pennies to the blades or placing depressions on the blades to hold weights.......not! Buy with care.

i have a white ceiling fan in the bedroom, it's a small room and i like the way it blends in. in the loungeroom i have a timber finish one and i love it, it really goes with all the timber trim in that room and does stand out, but in a good way IMO.

Auntsis, I posted the color above your post, you must have missed it. The color is Sesame, from SW old color sticks. It is very pretty. So is Raffia basket which is one shade lighter. If you like a little more gold than brown, try Dromedary camel, its the next stick after Sesame.

I love ceiling fans and have them in almost every room in our house. The one in my den looks very similar to Gk5040 fan

Check around on the web, we chose a Hunter Studio Series bronze fan with cherry blades and HD had on their site (not in stores) for $169. I found it on another site (WAM Home Center) for much less, no shipping, no tax.