A crystal chandelier says things to a guest that are more easily conveyed without words. Like, “You are a VIP in this house.” Or, “We know you love art and beautiful things, so look how we’ve welcomed you!”  

A crystal chandelier can even make statements you don’t dare make. Like, “You may be critical of my cooking, but you can’t fault your accommodations!” Or, “Stop looking for dust in every corner, and enjoy the crystal!”  

Guests rooms are sometimes quite small, but this should be no deterrent to installing a crystal chandelier. Schonbek makes a plethora of tiny crystal chandeliers, and they’re as beautifully designed and finely made as large Schonbek chandeliers.

Just to look at a few, New Orleans is an exuberant design remarkably lavish in its crystal trim, even in a small size.

Artifact emanates nostalgia. Guests will think you went antiquing in remote and exotic places to find it.

Genesis is unlike any other crystal chandelier, very personable and appealing. The design was inspired by the Tree of Life, and it’s really all about creativity. Genesis displays lots of whimsical colored crystal, as well as a fabulous rock crystal finial sphere.  

Renaissance is an authentic seventeenth-century style. Although the ornate frame is quite dainty, the many-faceted, handcut crystal pendants are large and dazzling.

I’m trying to pick favorites, but the trouble is, I love every tiny crystal chandelier Schonbek makes. In miniaturizing the magnificence of a crystal chandelier, Schonbek has come up with something we all have a use for: a good thing in a small package.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Money spent on Botox, restorative creams and cosmetic surgery might be better spent on crystal chandeliers.

As I looked at myself in the mirror this morning, I thought with some surprise, “I really don’t look my age!” I was considering this some kind of personal accomplishment when I remembered how haggard I always look at the hairdresser under fluorescent lights. The real credit for my morning youthfulness goes to the crystal chandelier in my bathroom, and the crystal wall sconces on either side of the mirror.

The prismatic light emanating from a crystal chandelier is both soft and lively, the kindest light on Earth. When you put a crystal chandelier in the living room or dining room, you share this kindness with others. Faded friends, elderly aunts, teenagers with uncertain complexions – everyone benefits from the light of a crystal chandelier.

I’m not talking about a fuzzy atmosphere, like what you get when the eye doctor puts dilating drops in your eyes. (I just came from the eye doc. It’s not at all the same thing.) The light from a crystal chandelier makes everything perfectly clear – yet somehow it’s a deeper reality we’re seeing.

To enhance the atmospheric effects of a crystal chandelier, choose one heavily laden with crystal, like La Scala, Renaissance, or Olde World. In the presence of a plethora of crystal, light is endlessly refracted in countless ways and directions, to the point where it feels like an almost liquid luminosity. You can’t actually see the atmosphere shimmering, but at some level it is. This is wonderfully flattering to humankind and even furniture. A freshly polished table positively gleams by the light of a crystal chandelier.

Am I offering you a superficial reason to buy a crystal chandelier? I don’t think so. Surely one of our missions in life should be to propagate beauty every way we can: support and appreciate art, create a lovely environment in our homes and work places, and be as pleasing as we can make ourselves inside and out.  

Thanks goodness the fashionable people of bygone centuries invested in art, fine furnishings and crystal chandeliers. When we visit the museums, palaces and villas where all this beauty still resides, we can appreciate the past in all its radiance.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The expression “looking at the world through rose-colored glasses” takes on new meaning with The Rose, a crystal chandelier for romantics.

The thing about romantics is that, although they share so many things in common (idealism, tender emotions, intense enthusiasms), they are generally quite convinced they’re unique. (And they are.) The Rose addresses this seeming contradiction rather neatly.

The Rose is an exuberant crystal chandelier with richly varied crystal trim. Elongated crystal teardrops predominate, however, in keeping with the fact that romantics are easily moved to tears, either visibly or inside. But to cater to the uniqueness of every romantic ever born, this crystal chandelier comes in 12 crystal color palettes.

I’m a romantic only in matters related to my husband. I’m also susceptible to romantic comedies. This is enough to give me an appreciation of The Rose. Fervent romantics might want to hang this crystal chandelier in every room, changing their color palette from room to room, which is easy to do when you can order your chandelier in any one of 12 different color themes. Compartmentalized romantics, like me, might like to dedicate just one room in the house to romance.

The names of the crystal color palettes are as tempting as the chandeliers themselves. Who could resist a crystal chandelier with the color designation Iced Tea? Or Midnight Ming? Or Antique Plum? I believe Andrew Schonbek himself named these colors. Chanterelle is another intriguing name. I just looked it up and discovered it’s the name of an edible mushroom found in temperate woodlands. It is, in fact, a wonderful woodsy mix of subtle colors. To possess a crystal chandelier that evokes an enchanted forest would be quite nice.