Going Retro

[plonq]

atara posted about this already in her journal, but I felt it was worth repeating here since our respective friends lists don't entirely overlap.

When I bought this house there was a fairly nice chandelier in the dining room, but before I could get too attached to it the woman with whom I was finalizing the deal said, "Oh, and if you don't mind I'd like to keep the lighting fixture when I move out. It was a gift from the children for our 50th anniversary and I'd like to take it with me." I couldn't say no to that, after she had just finished selling me a near-antique 8-piece dining room set for next to nothing.

She replaced the light fixture with the old one, which was okay...



I should say, it was okay in the sense that there wasn't a hole in the ceiling with wires hanging down from it. The fixture has no character, but I was too much of a bachelor to care that much.

Does it produce light? Yes.
Is there a hole in the ceiling with wires hanging down so that I need to wire up a light bulb or something? No.

It's all good.

A few weeks back we were entertaining orleans and gryllus, and as part of that we wandered through The Forks market downtown. While we were there we wandered down into the basement of the Johnson Terminal (an old warehouse that's been gentrified and turned into a centre for coffee and kitsch). We've been through there before and made token purchases, but this time atara spotted a chandelier that caught her fancy. She dragged me over for a look and I liked it as well. It had the futuristic, clean lines of Art Deco (are you supposed to capitalize that?) and we both thought it would be a good fit in our dining room.



The wiring and hanging process only took way more work than I had anticipated, and we were both concerned when we turned it on for the first time because it looked awfully dim. I suggested that we should wait until dark and try it again because it casts most of its light indirectly. It's not as bright as the old lighting fixture, but it casts plenty of light for anything we'll be doing in there - and it looks WAY cooler. New toys rock!

Comments

[duncandahusky.livejournal.com]

Aha! I finally figured out what that lamp reminds me of - the clown's hat in I Pagliacci.

Still, it's pretty darned cool.

[orleans.livejournal.com]

That looks great! You guys might have a future career as interior designers. :D

[boinggoat.livejournal.com]

Just don't file any UFO sighting reports, or the debunkers will think you were just inside. :)

[furahi.livejournal.com]

I actually liked the previous one.. but that's me, it's more like my style I guess.. Though I don't know the rest of your house, it's what goes with the house more than how much one likes the individual item.
It's still pretty pretty nice though :D and I think the light it provides must be warmer than the other one's

[plonq.livejournal.com]

Actually it doesn't produce a warmer light than the old fixture did, rather it fills the room with a cool, ambient - almost otherworldly - glow.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

That album cover is scary on many levels.

[plonq.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't say that if you saw our bedroom. It's an example of interior design gone bad (or gone incomplete anyway - maybe we'll finish it this summer... sigh).

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Oooh, nice :D
In case you're interested This is my light fixture... Only in my room of course. Thought you might like it '-^oo^-'

[plonq.livejournal.com]

Yowzers! I especially like the Japanese-lantern style one. I didn't see anything like that for sale over here, well, anywhere. I'm jealous. O.o

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Well, to be honest I never saw anything like that here either :P
I went to Germany in 1999, and all of a suddent Toys R Us in Frankfurt was TLK Bonanza :D
Got many many many TLK items, most of what you can see in My room back then :D

Unfortunately there's loads of dust in my house, and the Japanese lantern one collects plenty and is very hard to clean :-/