The question I get asked most about chandeliers is whether a regular room, with regular ceilings, can actually carry one, or if they only work in places with ten foot ceilings and a staircase. The answer is yes, a regular room can carry one, you just have to pick the scale and the drop with some sense, and I've seen a small chandelier do more for a plain dining room than any amount of new paint.
When you're standing under one in a shop, or the day it shows up on your porch, check the weight of it in your hands before it ever gets near the ceiling. A chandelier that feels flimsy at the hardware store is going to feel worse swinging eight feet above your dinner table. Look at how the arms attach, whether the joints are soldered clean or just glued and hoping, and give the chain a tug the way you'd test a ladder. If it's got glass or crystal pieces, check they hang straight and don't knock against each other with a cheap little clatter, you want a sound closer to a wind chime than a baby rattle.
Over the years a good one only gets better looking, brass and bronze pick up a softness, a little honest tarnish that catches the light differently than it did on day one. I wipe mine down maybe twice a year with a dry cloth and leave the metal alone otherwise, because polishing it back to showroom shine is how you end up with something that looks like it's trying too hard. Dust collects on the arms more than you'd expect, so a feather duster every month or so saves you from a real cleaning job later. If it's wired for candle bulbs, buy a few spares now, because the one that burns out is always the one in the middle you can't reach without a stepladder and a small argument with yourself about whether it's worth it tonight.
In an ordinary room, a chandelier sits best over something with a bit of its own weight to it, a solid wood table, a rug with some texture underfoot, furniture that isn't afraid of a little attention from above. It looks a bit silly floating over something flimsy, like a tuxedo on a folding chair. I've hung modest ones in rented apartments over secondhand tables and they've held their own just fine, no ten foot ceiling required.
A chandelier that's a little too good for the room is a nicer problem to live with than one that's doing the bare minimum, and most rooms can hold more light and more presence overhead than people give them credit for.
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