The world famous Le Klint pendant lamp that made a splash in the 60s is back, sort of. A reproduction of the original pendant designed by architect Poul Christiansen is available for $266 at Sexy Furnishings and elsewhere. The new Le Klint lamp, like the original, features a beautifully curvaceous polypropylene shade, a portable luminaire format, and a 6′ white cord ready for hanging.
There’s a lot to hate here… the powder pink paint, the cheesy hanging crystals, and the in-your-face arms on this pink chandelier from Bunny Maxwell come to mind. And yet, I’m drawn to this chandelier like a doomed moth is drawn to the flame of a citronella candle.
Yes, my lust is awakened, and I would gladly reshape my entire abode to find a fit for a powder pink chandelier. It’s a good thing I don’t have three hundred smackers lying around… or is it? If I found the right chandelier at a secondhand shop and the right color of paint at the local Home Depot, I’d wager a powder pink chandelier would suddenly fit right into my budget.
Someone has to warn The Beard!
Love vintage lamps and vintage-look lighting? Then you need to check out Swank Lighting, located in Dallas, Texas.
They stock a fabulous collection of original Venetian art glass lamps that have been updated and are ready to show off in your 21st Century environment. Prices? Vintage Murano lamp prices start at $1,800 per pair, but can go up depending on size, rarity, quality, and the complexity of the blown glass in each lamp.
Not in Texas? No problem — they Swank Lighting ships worldwide!
Nothing says mod like clean lines, beautiful curves, and plenty of black, white, and red. But life is more fun when you mix it up a bit, right?
Here, brushed metal cube tables, an Orbit ball chair, and a Hanako sayuri rug are paired with a lamp that bridges the gap between contemporary and classic decor.
Um, no thanks. I think I’ll stand way back from this creepy hanging noose lamp designed by Marie Thurnauer. While Halloween is just a few short weeks away, this morbid piece of decor is meant to hang in one’s lair 365 days a year.
That’s not the only reason I’ll be standing back, however. At 4750.00 €, this lamp is downright scary.
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Sherwood Forlee created New Lamp after discovering that the Manhattan’s New Museum didn’t glow like it had in the architect’s renderings.
Forlee’s scaled down version lights up the night in a way the museum can’t…but I want it because it looks like a stack of sugar cubes. New Lamp is handmade and available in limited quantities, though I can’t say for how much because Forlee is keeping it a secret.
Negative space becomes a positive feature when glass (and Lucite) artists start turning the world upside down. Forms take shape in the air — we see them only when we are actively looking.
Jon Russell’s Ghost Candelabra finds its roots in 19th-century design — glass cups sit in a Lucite base that folds flat for storage. Compare it to the Abra Candelabras created by Alberto Mantilla and Anthony Baxter. Candles are suspended in midair in candlesticks that don’t actually exist. Alissia Melka Teichroew’s Inside Out Champagne Glasses and Inside Out Martini Glasses only reveal their secrets when filled with libations.
I like the subtle sneakiness of these pieces, which makes their down-to-earth usefulness all the nicer.
The lovely La Petite Acadienne wrote me to ask the following question:
Do ceiling fixtures look funny in living rooms with standard-height ceilings? We were going to do a mix of wall sconces and lamps in our living room, but have nixed most of the wall sconces because we have no idea where we will be placing our furniture, and don’t want to be cursing ourselves down the road when we can’t put our tall bookshelves in a certain spot because the damn wall sconces are in the way.
So, we decided to go with one wall sconce, some yet-to-be-determined lamps, and an overhead fixture for when it’s really dark (or for when I am cleaning.) Yet my mother said that she thought it would look “funny” to have a ceiling fixture in the living room when we don’t have extra-high ceilings. If anybody else had said this, I’d have brushed it off. Yet, because my mother has pretty elegant tastes in decor, I am now second-guessing myself.
My answer was a highly unhelpful “It depends.” When I’m contemplating ceiling fixtures — which is fairly often because my office is desperately crying out for one — I typically ask myself what will be underneath and around it. If you’re enamored with a hanging fixture, are your ceilings so low that people will bonk their heads? Will it look awkward or split up the room? If you’re in love with a wide fixture, is it going to look monstrous in a smaller room?
Some people reject dropped fixtures on standard ceilings in average sized rooms, but I like to consider questions like these on a case by case basis. For example, The Beard and I have a ceiling fan and three dropped lights hanging from our standard height bedroom ceiling (right over the bed, in fact) and it looks great. Woe unto them that jump on the bed, however, as they will be decapitated!
I’ve seen some very, very chic low hanging fixtures on standard height ceilings. I think it works best when the room is relatively uncluttered and the fixture can stand on its own as a kind of centerpiece. If it blends in too much, it will look like it’s in the way, even if it’s not. I think they tend to look best hanging over a table, which removes the risk of bonked heads. My advice to you is to take a snapshot of your living room and shop in your chosen fixture (or something very like it) to see how it will mesh with your current decor.
Some hanging fixtures lend do themselves well to having their cords shortened — a step I will likely have to take in my office because, dang it, I want a colored chandelier — but I wouldn’t recommend taking your fixture all the way up to the ceiling, because that can look ungainly. Better, I think, to take the risk and do something a little different.
Additionally, I recommend that anyone who is entirely unsure of what sort of ceiling fixtures they want give the Rejuvenation Lighting Advice app a try. You put in the age of your home, the architectural style, and a smattering of other details, and the site spits out a selection of appropriately sized fixtures. Of course, they’re just recommendations, and I’m not about to dissuade anyone from doing something crazy-funky!
The house that The Beard and I own — or sort of own, because a goodly portion of it still belongs to Wells Fargo — came complete with a backyard deck painted a sort of rusty red color that burns the hell out of our feet on summer afternoons. We’ve got a power sander and a couple of jugs of deck stain at the ready. What we don’t have is time!
Recently, my MIL was in town along with one of The Beard’s cousins, my own mother, and her partner. Watching our relatives carry kitchen chairs out onto the deck was a bit humbling, to say the least. We’d had two of those molded plastic chairs one can buy at the Family Dollar and a little matching table, which was fine for us. Then The Beard dropped one off of the side of the deck, meaning no more leisurely Saturday morning outdoor breakfasts. For now, at least.
Well, it seems my MIL noticed the lack of outdoor seating because before she left, she presented The Beard with a check for a thousand dollars to put toward a nice patio set. Now I’m wasting precious time scouring the Internet for ideas. I can’t decide whether to buy something chic for two (seeing as that we’ll be the ones using it 99% of the time) or a set that can accommodate larger numbers.
Here are two possibilities:
The Provence garden set would be perfect for those intimate breakfasts mentioned above, but less than ideal when guests were in town.
The Al Fresco teak set, on the other hand, would allow us to play host to at least three other people.
We’re gravitating toward something durable that’s less than the amount donated by my MIL so we can buy a few other things for our home. I’m thinking about picking up this lamp from Bellacor:
It’s lovely, it matches my living room scheme, and it costs a mere $151, which doesn’t seem like a lot when you have a thousand bucks to play with. Would I spring for it normally? Probably not because I like the thrifting game too much, but the rules have changed for the time being!
If you’re a tea connoisseur like The Beard — or a tea cup connoisseur — how can you not love these “ted lights” from Domestic Construction? Besides the fact that they’re uberclever, they’re also just retro enough to be chic while still being subtle enough to blend into a modern space. Then again, a group of them would make a great focal point for a countryish space.
I’m not quite sure how one can acquire them outside of going to Brooklyn and knocking on the door with checkbook in hand. Domestic Construction appears to be a studio rather than a store, but apparently those local to the NYC area can buy some of their unique wares at Ricky’s.
Sucks to be the rest of us, I guess!