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Home > Inspiring Chandeliers New York Times Article
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Inspiring Chandeliers & Crystal Chandelier Parts
Appearing in the NY Times on June 30, 2005 By Mitchell Owens
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My apartment has a dining alcove
where I'd like to hang a chandelier. I'm less interested in shedding light
than in creating a visual centerpiece. What do you recommend?
You have been in the dark, haven't you?
In recent years, innovative designers have brought chandeliers out of the
grandmother zone and made them hip. (Something similiar happened in the
1960's, when designers like Arne Jacobsen were making groovy - and now hotly
collected - chandeliers out of capiz shells and glass pailettes.) Brace
yourself; some of the best designs are costly. Rest assured, however, that
there are inexpensive options, too.
At the forefront of the hanging lamp revival is the Dutch designer Tord
Boontje, who recently designed a lacy chandelier in collaboration with Coopa-Roca,
a women's craft cooperative in Rio de Janeiro. Called Come Rain, Come Shine,
the fixture is shaped like a hot-air balloon and made to order of black
or muticolored hand-crocheted cotton, dappled with delicate silk and cotton
flowers. The fixtures come in two sizes - 16 inches wide and 32 inches tall,
or 22 inches wide and 44 inches tall- and can be ordered ($4,000 and $7,100)
from Artecnica, a showroom in Los Angeles;(323) 655-6551artecnicainc.com.
Moss, 146 Greene Street (Houston Street), (866) 888-6677 ormossonline.com,
has the 44-inch version in black for $6,700 and the colored version at $7,100.
Mr. Boontje began to forge his reputation in 2001 with a lyrical, stratospherically
priced reinvention of the chandelier for Swarovski. Called Blossom, it looks
like a crystal-encrusted metal branch and comes in three versions, with
crystals that are pink, dark blue or pale green. Moss has them starting
at $21,500.
At the wallet-pleasing end of the spectrum, Mr. Boontje offers the Garland
Light, a flexible vine of laser-cut, floral-pattern brass that can be wrapped
around a light bulb. Introduced last year and also available in silver-plated
brass, the Garland Light is $48 at the Conran Shop, 407 East 59th Street;
(866) 755-9079.
Philippe Starck, the French designer who has put his mirthful-minimal stamp
on everything from toilet brushes to boutique hotels, created Zenith, a
formal crystal chandelier for Baccarat. What makes it different is the color:
jet black.
If this model appeals to you (and if your pockets are very deep), consider
setting off its drop-dead coloring against walls that are either brightly
painted (high-gloss white or matte-finish pink might be fun) or boldly patterned
(I'm thinking of stripes in brash candy colors). Zenith is available from
Baccarat, (800) 777-0100, in five sizes, from 6-light ($24,760) to 24-light
($67,500).
If these prices seem a bit rich, you could always do what I once did: buy
a vintage crystal or beaded chandelier at a flea market for a few hundred
dollars and replace the clear prisms and beads with colorful substitutes.
Sources for colored prisms include eBay andchandelierparts.comor swankynest.com.
Swanky Nest also has small, dashing fixtures that fit around recessed lights.
They look like tiers of colored bead curtains and are priced from $29.95
to $39.95.
You could take inspiration from Brian Murphy, a freewheeling architect in
Santa Monica, Calif., known for creative solutions. In several of his projects
he has massed a number of flea market chandeliers, suspended from the ceiling
at different heights, as one dazzling cluster. Typically he has used metal
chandeliers that were made in Italy in the 1960's, the kind that look like
explosions of spiky flowers and populate every self-respecting flea market
- he paints them in solid colors like fire-engine red for maximum impact
- but there's no reason you couldn't take the massing idea and apply it
to other fixtures.
A constellation of inexpensive globe-shape paper shades would be swell in
a "e;2001:A Space Odyssey"e; way. They are $3 to $30 at Pearl River
Mart, 477 Broadway (Grand Street), 212 431-4770 orpearlriver.com.
Or you could fall back on an assortment of lampshades, either crisply modern
or funky vintage. Either way, be bold. A chandelier isn't meant to be modest.
Questions about furnishings and decor may be sent by email toroom@nytimes.com
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