last pendant option:

no opinions? :/

I'd love to hear your opinions @weedyacres!! What looks most classic to you? I don't want the lighting to say "2015" . I am worried that I'm drawn to more trendy items vs. classic. I appreciate your help!

Being a big fan of old houses, particularly Colonials, I understand your desire to stay classic and not trendy. If that is your wish, any fixture with a drum shade will not be appropriate. Likewise, the possible chandeliers and flush mounts you picked are very au courant.

While I love old fixtures, some of them look pretty dowdy and I wouldn't want them no matter how "classic" they are.

What are your furnishings? Keep your fixtures in sync with them. I have lots of antiques and I have very traditional lighting fixtures. My close friend, also in an old house, has an eclectic mix of furnitures and accessories, likewise, a mix of lighting styles. It is awesome!

Just my thoughts... (And I love several of your selections!)

If you want to stay very traditional, look at Williamsburg-type brass fixtures. If you want to go more retro/funky/edgy, look at the airbrush-polychromed cast aluminum type, which will probably be a little toward art deco.
Sorry, but I'm not bothering with images under the new format.
Casey

@crickmay crickmay - my style leans towards vintage/simple/casual/traditional/happy. All of our chairs, buffets, dressers and a couple beds are old (purchased from antique shops or craigslist). I don't know if I'd say truly antique, but we do have some stuff that is 80+ years old. Our stove in the new kitchen will be a 1950 4 burner white chambers that we have sitting in the garage. We have a retro inspired white elmira fridge to pair with the chambers stove, and I plan to buy a refinished farmhouse sink.

I love this. We plan to do blue/gray cabinets with white honed marble counters and brick herringbone flooring.

I just bought a 1939 colonial (it's only 1700 sf). Here's a 1940s chandelier that remarkably resembles the lights I currently use in my home that I built in 2005 that is English-country inspired, so I wonder if the fixture company was inspired by this style. My fixtures have a charcoal/pewter finish with white frosted glass shades. Anyway, the frosted glass would work well with marble counters. I love your inspiration photo!

This is my current kitchen to show you how a frosted glass chandelier with a pewter/charcoal metal finish might look with painted cabinets . My cabinets are sage, rather than the lovely color in your inspiration. Anyway, my fixture resembles that 1940s chandelier. It's been 10 years since I bought it, so I'm afraid I don't remember who made the fixture. I have the same one over my dining table and a larger version in the two-story foyer.

Have you looked at the website http://retrorenovation.com/

The typical lighting fixtures of the 40's would be inappropriate IMO. Colonial lighting fixtures would be electrified simulated candles. The difficulty will be finding ways to provide modern task lighting. Very small LED pin spot recessed lighting works well.

Over the dining table, the first light fixture for sure. Over the banquette, the chain Style. Also, I have a 1943 home and I have two white barn style lights over my Island so great minds... and I love the retractable light!

Since this got a bump, the answer would be none of the above, but after all, lighting is one of those things that gets updated as a house goes through time. But I'm sure that Carolyn made her choices long ago.

But anyone reading this who's really interested in actual period lighting should check out the Building Technology Heritage Library at archive. org:

https://archive.org/details/buildingtechnologyheritagelibrary

which you can filter by year and which has numerous lighting catalogs from many different periods in the 20th century. You can find actual period lighting at etsy, ebay, and craigslist, once you know what you want, if that really is what you want.

@writersblock that website is awesome, thanks for the link! I know what I’m doing for the next two weeks. I wonder what the OP selected? I used to restore vintage lighting, so I’m biased towards the real thing, even if it isn’t “colonial”.