The Chandelier Blog

Chicago Tribune:

You notice the chandelier first, hanging on the porch of a weathered 1910 Craftsman, in sharp contrast to the chop saw lying nearby. Meredith Clark pulls leaded Austrian crystals from Tupperware containers and attaches strands of the delicate beads to a 5-foot-tall steel frame suspended from her roof.

It’s not the setting where one might expect to find a designer of fine custom chandeliers: A friend’s son is napping nearby on the sleeping porch; Clark’s own son asks if he can check his e-mail. The path to a workshop behind the house in Silver Lake, Calif., is littered with FedEx boxes, giant bags of packing peanuts and stray wooden crates. Pear-shaped crystals lie on a mat next to a Razor scooter.

Just another day at the office, and that’s just the way Clark likes it. Little about Clark’s rise as a lighting designer has been conventional. She became interested in chandelier design a decade ago when her boyfriend, a production manager for Shabby Chic, was struggling to find vintage chandeliers. A lightbulb went off.

“I was home with a 6-month-old child and I thought, `I can make that,’” she says.

Ten years after founding her business, Chandi, Clark has seen her chandeliers land in the catalogs of Anthropologie and Neiman Marcus as well as high-profile local stores such as H.D. Buttercup. Her largest piece, 6 feet tall, was created for the Georgia mansion of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, and was delivered in a crate as big as a shed.

Carry on reading: Room for creativity.

Paris Hilton’s $3.1 million house in the Hollywood Hills is located near the pad of Cameron Diaz.

The house is loaded with posh extras which includes a $43,000 Baccarat crystal chandelier in the lounge.

Life… undressed:

I found this gorgeous gigantic chandelier in Carcosa Sri Negara and I was awed. I mean, I’m a mini-chandelier or chandelier earring only person. But this one was majestic! It was really beautiful in person! It exudes a little Old English, Secret Garden feel…

So I kept bugging my photographer to take a picture of it. He was like you want to stand under it? No, not so professional okay!

Anyway, if you are super rich, or super famous, or super both (Queen Elizabeth II stayed here before!), and are looking for a venue to hold your wedding, you can consider this place; exceptionally beautiful, exceptionally elegant.

Chandeliers:

The $12 chandelier, “probably circa 1980,” had a few problems, but those could be painted out in flat black, or you might like the rustic look of rusted wrought iron. Now, invite a friend over for tea, light a candle and brag just a little.

Chiwi Land:

Well… the house is in it’s finally stages… so I’ve been looking at some lightings…

I like this…

It’s nice, but I think it’s more a ‘fashion’ thing at the moment, and fashion ‘comes and goes’…

so… got to look for something more ‘classic’…
like this maybe…

or I also like the crystal ones as well

Log Homes & Log Furnitures:

… AspenLog, out of Colorado just announced a HUGE SALE on antler lighting.

If you have been wanting an authentic antler chandelier, but didn’t want to spend the money…. you need to check this out - Aspenlog.com HALF PRICE SALE on Antler Lighting.

Canada.com:

Chandeliers are hot, and with summer temperatures rising, so are garden parties. So how about the concept of outdoor chandeliers?

They’re doubly trendy.

At a pair of recent garden parties - each created by an Edmonton home decor expert - chandeliers hanging from screened-in gazebos added a touch of high style and whimsy to celebrations geared to the great outdoors.

Other trendy party ideas for 2007 include an amazingly popular cocktail from Brazil called the caipirinha.

EADT:

Any mention of moving chandeliers and thoughts are likely to turn to the Only Fools and Horses episode in which Del, Rodney and Grandad demonstrated how not to do it.

But one Suffolk company now has the ultimate proof that it can do the job properly - in the form of a Royal Warrant from Her Majesty the Queen.

SLS Systems, part of the AIM group which is based at Ransomes Europark, Ipswich, has received the royal stamp of approval for its work at Windsor Castle over the past 10 years.

The company is responsible for the upkeep of the winch systems and safety wires which raise and lower the magnificent chandeliers at the castle, plus the safety testing of the hanging bolts throughout the historic building.

A Storybook Life:

A few years ago I was given an old (but not vintage) brass colored chandelier. The gal who gave it to me said she simply hated the piece & couldn’t wait to replace it with a more modern style of light fixture. Of course, when she offered it to me, I gladly said yes, because I knew that I could think of someway to use it.

Fast forward a few years after the chandelier has been waiting in my basement for just the right project… A few days before Christmas, I came up with the idea of removing the crystals and finding a way to hang them in the window. I wanted to use all of the pretty pieces of glass, so nothing would be wasted. So… after putting my brain in creative mode, I decided to make a sort of window mobile / curtain of glass.

Living Beautifully:

… We have a hanging chandelier but it is nowhere near “shabby” until I added greenery and some hanging sachets that I sell on my website. (Hide in plain sight!) I want a “fancy schmancy” crystal chandelier with little shabby roses shades and beads and prisms. Jack said we don’t need it; that this one works just fine. Now I want you to just take a guess on who is going to win here!!