AJ Royal Pendant Ø370 or Ø500: Sizing Jacobsen's Hotel Pendant

The AJ Royal Pendant comes in two diameters, 370 and 500 mm, and the right one depends less on taste than on the table beneath it and the ceiling above it. This guide sets out the measurements of both sizes, how each relates to common table widths and room heights, and how the pendant sits alongside the AJ table and floor lamps from the same 1957 hotel.

One dome, drawn for a hotel in 1957

Arne Jacobsen designed the AJ Royal in 1957 for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen. The building was his total work of art: the tower, the furniture, the textiles and the lighting were conceived as one composition, and the Swan and Egg chairs were drawn for the same interiors. Most of the AJ lamps are angular, with leaning, asymmetric shades. The Royal is the exception. It explores the circle, as a shallow dome hung flat from its cord.

That shape does two jobs. The interior spreads a generous pool of light downwards, while the ridged top lets a gentle share of light escape upwards, so the ceiling above a table does not drop into darkness. Louis Poulsen has since re-engineered the lamp around an integrated LED with a built-in frosted acrylic diffuser, which keeps the source out of sight from the side and from below. The shade is lacquered aluminium and steel in black or white, the fabric cord is 4 m long and matches the shade, and a canopy is included. The smaller Ø370 version was added in 2020.

If you want the fuller story of the hotel and the lamps Jacobsen drew for it, our piece on the AJ lamps and Jacobsen's total design for a hotel covers it in depth.

The two sizes in numbers

On paper the difference looks modest. In a room it is not. The Ø500 is 130 mm wider and 44 mm taller, and because the shade is a dome, its visual area over a table grows much faster than its diameter.

The table rows are not factory specifications. They follow the working rule most lighting designers use: a single pendant over a dining table looks right at roughly one third to one half of the table's width, and on a long table two pendants share the length better than one large shade.

Matching the diameter to your table

Start with the width of the tabletop, not its length. On a table about 80–90 cm wide, the Ø370 leaves visible tabletop on either side of the dome and reads as proportionate from across the room. A Ø500 over the same table can feel as though it crowds the people seated at it, especially in black, where the shade has more visual weight.

From around 100 cm of width the Ø500 comes into its own. Round tables of 110–120 cm, where everyone sits at an equal distance from the centre, are close to ideal: the circle of the shade echoes the circle of the table, and the 30 W source gives enough light to reach the edge. On a round table of 90 cm or less, the Ø370 is usually the better match.

Long rectangular tables are where the smaller size has quietly changed things since 2020. Two Ø370 pendants hung in a row spread the light along the length of a 180 cm table more evenly than one Ø500 in the middle, and they keep the sightline across the table open. If the table is 240 cm or longer, two Ø500 pendants carry the scale better.

Ceiling height and hanging height

A flat profile is one of the Royal's quiet strengths. At 181 mm tall for the Ø370 and 225 mm for the Ø500, neither shade eats much vertical space, so both work under modest ceilings where a taller pendant would hang too close to heads or block the view across the room. The 4 m cord leaves plenty of length to shorten, even under high ceilings.

Over a dining table, the usual guidance is to hang the lower rim around 60–70 cm above the tabletop. At that height the diffuser stays out of the eyeline of seated diners, the light pool covers the table, and the upward wash from the ridged top reaches the ceiling. With standard ceilings of around 240 cm, the Ø370 sits comfortably at that height with clear space above. The Ø500 also works at 240 cm, but it gains presence in rooms that are a little taller or open-plan, where its width is balanced by the volume around it.

Weight is the practical point many people overlook. The Ø500 weighs 7.3 kg against 4.2 kg for the Ø370, so check that the ceiling box or fixing can carry it, particularly in older plaster ceilings. Both sizes are phase dimmable with standard leading- or trailing-edge dimmers, which is worth planning for at the wiring stage: a dining pendant at full output for homework and dimmed for dinner is how the Royal is meant to be used.

Black or white, 2700 K or 3000 K

Colour changes how large the shade looks. Black reads as a solid object and makes the dome appear heavier and closer, which suits the Ø370 well and gives a small pendant real presence. White blends into a pale ceiling and lightens the Ø500, a sensible choice if you want the larger light output without a dominant dark shape in the room.

For colour temperature, 2700 K is the warmer of the two options and the closer match to traditional incandescent light at a dining table. 3000 K is slightly cooler and crisper, useful in a kitchen-diner where the table also serves as a workspace, or where other fittings in the room already run at 3000 K.

Pairing the Royal with the AJ table and floor lamps

Jacobsen drew the AJ lamps as a family for the same hotel, so they combine naturally. The AJ Table Lamp is 560 mm tall, with an asymmetric, tiltable shade on a slim stem and a disc foot with a circular cut-out. On a sideboard beside a dining table lit by a Ø370 Royal, it adds a second, lower point of light at a height that does not compete with the pendant.

The AJ Floor Lamp stands 1300 mm tall and was made as a reading lamp. In an open-plan room where the dining area runs into a living area, a Ø500 Royal over the table and an AJ Floor Lamp beside an armchair give each zone its own light while the round and angular shapes speak to each other.

In short: choose the Ø370 for tables up to about 100 cm wide, for pairs over a long table and for standard ceilings; choose the Ø500 for round tables of 110 cm or more, for wider tables and for rooms with height to spare. To see the Royal alongside Henningsen, Panton and the rest of the catalogue, browse the full Louis Poulsen collection.