Friday, October 11, 2007

I saw a Schonbek crystal chandelier in a major home décor magazine in an article about neutral color schemes. It was a Versailles with a French Antique frame, and it looked fantastic over the dining table. (I linked to a photo with a bright gold frame, so you have to imagine this chandelier with a dark, almost black frame.)

Oddly, there was no mention of the chandelier in the editorial. I suppose if a dining room is beautifully designed, a crystal chandelier has come to be expected over the table. No discussion necessary.

The crystal chandelier was definitely the focal point of this dining room. As it always is.

A crystal chandelier is ideal for neutral color palettes. Clear crystal is inherently neutral, while at the same time picking up the tonalities in the room, however muted. In this case, the choice of a Versailles crystal chandelier was quite astute. Versailles is entirely ornamented with crystal pendeloques, most of which only display a prismatic play of light at the beveled edges. Very subtle.

A month or two from now, there will probably be an article in this same magazine about color drenched rooms. The truth is, you can be perfectly in step with home design trends by being neutral or passionately colorful. Anything goes nowadays, if you do it well.

And ironically, there will probably be a crystal chandelier in at least one room of this color-drenched home. Perhaps a  Hamilton black crystal chandelier over the dining room table. Or an Adagio mini chandelier with crystal fruit in the kitchen. Or a romantic bedroom illuminated by The Rose. All of these chandeliers display colored crystal.

Classic chandeliers with clear crystal ornaments are also wonderful in colorful interiors. The same Versailles crystal chandelier that looked so perfect in a neutral dining room will look equally perfect in a room rich in reds and golds. Because it relates so fluidly with light and color.

Or the choice might be Renaissance or La Scala, both ornamented with multi-faceted, highly prismatic crystal. The spectral bursts of color dancing off these crystal chandeliers will be spectacular, and very much in keeping with a high intensity color palette.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

I’m looking at an image of a Jasmine crystal chandelier, and the word that comes to mind is “perfection.”

It’s hard to be personally perfect: never lose your temper, never let dust collect in the corners of rooms, never have a bad hair day. But at least you can possess a perfect crystal chandelier.

To start with the big picture, the shape of this design totally satisfies one’s idea of a crystal chandelier. It’s as if you took a traditional chandelier and refined it and refined it, until only the essence of the ideal crystal chandelier remained. Every element is highly stylized, from crown to finial, and including the arms and bobeches.

A crystal chandelier, of course, is primarily about crystal. And Jasmine displays crystal in a unique way. The body of the chandelier is handcut from a massive block of flawless optic crystal. It looks very much like a huge diamond with wild bursts of prismatic light dancing off the gleaming facets.

Because a Jasmine crystal chandelier is so pure and simple, you can indulge in matching Jasmine crystal lamps without losing your cool.  Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of matching lamps and chandeliers, but it’s a deliberate act of exuberant decorating in most cases, and somewhat over the top. Not, however, in the case of a matching Jasmine chandelier and lamp.

Traditional crystal chandeliers are heavily laden with crystal pendants. A Jasmine chandelier has only one dangling crystal  jewel, at the finial point. This oversized chunk of crystal is a mirror image of the massive crystal body, and in a way symbolic of all the crystal pendants that have been sacrificed to the purity of the design. No wonder the glittering finial seems to have so much power.

If you want Jasmine to be a colored crystal chandelier, it can be. You have a choice of clear, Jet Black, Sapphire or Topaz crystal accents. The color will appear in the bobeches, the finial and the crystal sphere at the crown. Your Jasmine lamp comes with the same list of crystal color options. If I went for color, I’d probably choose Jet Black.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The invasion of the kitchen by the crystal chandelier is a twenty-first century phenomenon, and it’s telling us something. The question is, what?

In contemporary life in America, we know the family gravitates to the kitchen – for snacks, coffee, conversation and just plain hanging out. The dining room just doesn’t attract this amount of traffic. Even a party ends up with half the guests crammed into the kitchen. In previous centuries, the kitchen was a gathering spot as well, but for the servant class and the working class. The genteel classes avoided it. Whereas in our century, the kitchen belongs to everyone.

Perhaps there’s some deep need in humanity to be near the food source. And we still feel that pull. At the same time, the kitchen isn’t just a food production area anymore.

I suspect there’s a lot less cooking going on today, what with prepackaged foods and the proliferation of take-out opportunities. Even for breakfast, people are eating cereal out of a box, or ready-made yogurt and granola, not fried eggs, bacon and home fries. If this is true, the social function of the kitchen has overwhelmed the cooking function. And the kitchen has become a room that deserves a personality, a room worthy as never before of being made beautiful.

When beauty and personality become possible attributes of a room, a crystal chandelier is bound to come to mind.

If you have a sizeable kitchen table, it deserves a crystal chandelier. No reason the dining table should have a monopoly on gorgeous lighting. A lighting consultant at a showroom that carries Schonbek can help you figure out the right size for your chandelier.

If you have a kitchen island, you can do the trendy thing and hang one or two mini crystal chandeliers above it. Schonbek designs mini chandeliers in so many different looks, you should be able to find something wonderful for your décor, whether traditional, provincial, eclectic, rustic or contemporary.

Of course you may have a high tech kitchen, which opens up the exciting possibility of Geometrix® high tech lighting. You have so many options: edgy crystal chandeliers and pendants with powerful down lights, crystal spotlights and track lights, crystal trim for recessed lighting. Be sure and visit a Geometrix® dealer to check it out.