Friday, February 1, 2008
I’ve come to believe that a crystal chandelier is essential in the bedroom. After all, bedrooms are not just for sleeping but for sleeplessness too.

My husband and I stayed awake for hours last night reading in bed, because he couldn’t sleep (too much green tea late in the day). The middle of the night has an interesting ambiance all its own. Your mind is usually relatively quiet, like the night, and your eyes are sensitive. It’s a great comfort to be in a room with warm, caressing light.Which is what you get with a crystal chandelier dimmed down. 

I alternated between reading my Polish detective story and resting my eyes on the Artifact crystal chandelier above the bed. I highly recommend this chandelier for restless sleepers who suffer from patches of wakefulness. The plump crystal pears are a soothing amethyst color, the tiny crystal pendeloques colored a shadowy Black Diamond. Crystal stars seem to celebrate the night.

The mood of this crystal chandelier is nostalgic, and nighttime is a fitting time to ruminate on the past. It’s quite natural to start thinking about all the people and events that have brought you to this moment in space and time, when you’re sleepless in the wee hours. Artifact will encourage you to remember your ancestors – or imagine them if they’re lost to you.

We have some nice pictures of bedrooms with crystal chandeliers on this website. A really pretty room is The Convivial Bedroom. It’s got a comfy looking sofa and armchair so you can get out of bed and sit up to read if you can’t sleep. This room is graced with a La Scala crystal chandelier. La Scala is rather grand, lavishly hung with oversized handcut crystal pendants. It will shimmer in the night just from a moonbeam coming through a window. This may be just what you need to drift gently to sleep every night.

Dreams of Ideal Beauty is another example of La Scala in a bedroom. The creamy tones of the space are very conducive to relaxation. And the chandelier sends a message that you deserve all the good fortune coming your way, including a good night’s sleep.

While we’re on the subject, you might enjoy reading the article on this website called A crystal chandelier in the bedroom?

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Though I was late this morning, I took a minute to enjoy the Versailles crystal chandelier over my breakfast table.

I’ve lived with this chandelier for years, and I’m still in love with it. This morning I got fascinated by the crystal spikes. They’re handcut and very challenging to make. Schonbek calls them spikes, but that doesn’t begin to convey the ornate forms of these crystal ornaments.

A traditional Versailles style chandelier (and Schonbek’s Versailles is uniquely authentic to the period) has an open cage construction. There’s no center column. Baroque scrolls forming a kind of cage are the supporting structure of the chandelier. Inside the cage a large crystal spike arises, as if pointing to the crystal sphere suspended just above it. This reaching up of the huge crystal spike towards the crystal sphere is mysteriously compelling, like the figures of Adam and the Creator reaching for each other in the Sistine Chapel. I hope no one will mind if I see an analogy here.  It’s all about creativity in both cases.

If you look at a photo of Versailles, you won’t be able to see this beautiful configuration of crystal at the heart of the chandelier. It’s hidden by the plethora of crystal pendeloques hanging from multiple points on the arms and scrolls. Schonbek is particularly lavish with crystal trim, to the delight of true lovers of crystal. So you’ll need to visit a lighting showroom with a Schonbek Versailles on display to realize how richly detailed this crystal chandelier really is. And in truth, if you bring it home, your admiration of the design will deepen over the years.

Besides the enormous center spike, there are smaller crystal spikes throughout the design. As I studied them this morning, I shook my head over the idea of calling them spikes, as the lighting industry does. They’re really shaped somewhat like antique crystal perfume bottles with tall crystal stoppers.

The combination of these elaborate crystal spikes and the crystal pendeloques with their fancy beveled edges results in a pleasurable feeling of exuberance. If a crystal chandelier could laugh, flirt or sing, it would look like Versailles. In this sense the chandelier reflects its origins. The style originated with King Louis XIV, legendary Sun King of seventeenth-century France, a monarch who loved fancy fashions and furnishings – and partied and frolicked as much as he possibly could throughout his reign.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
I’m in the fun position of advising someone on how to decorate an apartment. He’ll be using mostly family antiques for furniture, including antique Persian rugs, but the lighting is not settled.

The trouble with the apartment is that the ceilings are quite low. Colonial buildings in New England often have low ceilings, I suppose because people were smaller then, and they were trying to conserve heat.

Fortunately Schonbek makes lots of crystal ceiling baskets and crystal pendants in all sorts of  interesting styles.

I’m inclined to think that very opulent ceiling baskets don’t work in small rooms and low ceilings. So in this situation I’m favoring crystal chandeliers and pendants that come in small sizes.

However, in the big main room I think he could get away with a Renaissance close-to-ceiling chandelier with a length of 15 inches. There’s a gorgeous one trimmed with rock crystal and clear and colored crystal. The colored crystal is Black Diamond and Amethyst. This is really a mini-chandelier with six small candles. The rock crystal ornaments and the subdued crystal colors make this design quite suitable for a restrained décor. It’s truly magnificent without seeming over the top.  

For the two bedrooms I like The Rose in pendant form. These one-light pendants don’t throw much light, but do emanate lots of atmosphere.  You want quiet lighting in the bedroom anyway, along with good reading lamps. And there does happen to be a matching crystal lamp. Since there’s choice of 32 color palettes with The Rose, you can easily achieve a New England flavor. That’s the wonderful thing about The Rose. It can feel at home in the deep south, the wild west or wherever you happen to live, as long as you like the nostalgic look.

For the modest kitchen, a modest 3-light lantern-style mini chandelier: Bagatelle. I really like the Heirloom Bronze finish shown in this image. 

Another option would be to do the entire apartment in various sizes and renditions of The Rose, perhaps varying the crystal colors from room to room, or perhaps not. There’s something to be said for one theme in smaller living quarters