What is a Ceiling Rose?
Any light fitting that suspends from a ceiling, does so from an electric cable. The ‘rose’ is part of a decorative element that encases the cable and its light fitting support. Without the ceiling rose, lighting fittings would never look as neat or tidy. Like skirting boards, coving, and architraves, a ceiling rose hides the ugly and untidy parts of interior décor.
A modern brass ceiling light rose - this is a more modern style. The typical ceiling rose is white modern polymer, found in most homes today.
A grand and opulent ceiling rose with a plaster surround. However, today the style is back on trend and its smaller version can be found in new builds, especially in smaller lounges.
In a typical ceiling rose the electric cable is encased within the support. That same cable is the electric wire that runs into the ceiling and underneath the floorboards in the level up above. All electric cables typically run between the ceiling plaster board which are attached to the joists and covered up above by timber (or steel depending on the building).
In a typical wiring setup common to British homes, light fittings usually use loop-in ceiling roses, which includes the functionality of a junction box (up above the plaster, the electric cable would split in two but this is irrelevant!).
In this example on the right you can see 'Steampunk' decor and it illustrates how the building joists and upper floorboards are exposed. There is no plaster. The electric cables and junction box for the ceiling rose are encased but still exposed as piping.
You'll find this style too for radiator piping and plumbing, when the pipes are external rather than being hidden. This is typical of steampunk and you'll see this style across modern and older Victorian built buildings.
The ceiling rose on the right is a very common type that you'll find in most homes today, which is made from a polymer-based product.
As discussed above the most common ceiling roses are made from alternative materials so that many are now made from polymer-based products.
The older style ceiling roses were made from plaster which is really heavy but you'd typically see those in grander settings and big estates.
As a modern touch, brass, metal, and chrome ceiling roses are not uncommon either as shown above. Like most ceiling roses, whether they are made from a polymer based product or metal such as chrome or brass, they'll unscrew anti-clockwise.
Like most ceiling roses, whether they are made from polymer based product or metal such as chrome or brass, they'll unscrew anti-clockwise.
Be careful unscrewing - if they've been installed a long time they'll be stiff, and sometimes they get painted over, so the seal has paint inside it.
Sometimes accidently (or not in some cases!) someone plasters over them too which makes them even harder to unscrew. You can see on this one that someone forget to remove it when they decorated - they just painted around it!
Never pull them as you could pull the whole junction box off the plaster, which is normally screwed in underneath. If you're struggling to get one off, make sure its dry and your hands are dry too - older ones can be awkward to unscrew.
If you look closer at the ceiling rose on the right you'll see how the actual circular element is screwed into the ceiling plaster. This is what actually holds a ceiling light to the ceiling because the cable for the pendant will be attached to the element.
The electrical cable is housed up above laying on the plaster board beneath the floorboards. A small hole in the plaster allows the electric cable above to loop in and loop out, to push through in which it splits into its 'neutral, 'loop', and 'line'. We'll explain more about wiring up a ceiling rose in another blog post shortly.
Once you have a ceiling rose fixed to the ceiling, and the wiring is done, a pendant light or a chandelier can be suspended.
Most ceiling fans and lights come with ceiling roses
Modern spotlights often have chrome ceiling roses
Steampunk styled ceiling lights include the rose
It’s not clear why the word ‘rose’ is used to describe this boring piece of home decorative component! A circular nondescript piece of metal or polymer hardly looks like a rose. However, down the ages of European history, the rose shape seems to have been a popular shape to suspend above aristocratic and lordly meeting and banquet tables. If you research online, the rose is or was associated with truth and honesty, like an anti-symbol of secrecy.
Ironically, the decorative element now serves the purpose of concealing the truth that inside its covering, is a tangle of live electric cables for a wiring box. Remember too, if you need any hard wiring done for a light fitting, make sure the wiring is installed by a qualified electrician.
It is really the final piece in a beautiful jigsaw. After all, without some form of ceiling rose, your light fitting wouldn’t be the same now would it…
