musings of a mimi: a chandelier obsession

i'm not sure when it started. i've always loved them. my parents brought back a beautiful waterford chandelier when they went to ireland in 1972, which has hung in their dining room wherever they lived. we bought a chandelier for our dining room when we bought our house in 1990. it was a traditional brass number & very unexciting. my eye was always drawn to chandeliers in decorating magazines & such- huge, glittering chandeliers with dancing prisms of light from the crystal.

in the early-ish nineties, i wandered into anthill antiques in carytown. kay, the owner, is also chandelier obsessed. she purchases chandeliers & adds to them. i purchased my first real chandelier from her. i'd always wanted a chandelier for my kitchen. i thought i'd start with kitsch & this is what i got. when i bought it, there was a crystal prism every other hole- i purchased more prisms & filled them in. the first customization.... i just loved the idea of a chandelier in the kitchen- many people thought totally impractical - what about the grease from cooking? chandeliers are not for kitchens. (don't forget - this was 1993 or so). i loved my chandelier in my kitchen. & that was the beginning.

kay told me "i measure my happiness by the number of chandeliers in my house." her chandeliers were often reasonably priced & lots of fun. i began to purchase them & then add stuff on my own. the kitchen acquired two more chandeliers- one from anthill; the other from ebay. one of my favorites is in the powder room- a diminutive 3-arm sweetie. the problem with a chandelier collection is that you run out of space. they aren't practical for upstairs because we use the ceiling fans in the summer. although, when i turned a bedroom into a closet for me, i made my own chandelier. i bought the basics from kay & then selected my crystals. the color i chose for my closet room was the tiffany robin egg blue & i created my chandelier to go with that.

with all the beautiful chandeliers, the traditional brass chandelier was looking sooo drab. so i had kay to my house & she used her handy-dandy tool to punch holes in my chandelier so i could hang some crystals. i wanted to "tart it up." what ended up being really cool was that my mother gave to me a box she had of chandelier crystals from grandma's house in portsmouth, ohio. i couldn't believe these crystals hadn't come up before with all the chandelier hanging around my house! & the chandelier is quite tarted up- i love that it has the history of grandma.

part of the motivation to finally tart up the dining room chandelier was that my friend, suzi, had asked if i would be willing to allow my house to be on tour. st. gertrude's high school does a house tour every year, in a different neighborhood in the city. that year it was in ginter park- it was 1997. i was more than happy to oblige. i think it's the best my house has ever looked!

about a month later, i was at tinker's. i was at the register & there was a woman there purchasing a..... chandelier! she was telling the sales associate that she had been on a house tour the previous month & the house had chandeliers in the kitchen. she was buying one for her house- she loved the idea so much! how cool was that??!! here are my two of my kitchen chandeliers.

part of the reason for the timing of this post is that i have inherited the waterford. there was no question between tommy & kathy where the waterford would land. luckily, we have room for it- it will go in the entrance hall & the one in the entry now will go upstairs. i know that danny will get them hung before too long...

here are some interesting chandeliers i have come across in my cyber-travels. can you make out the shoes in this one? rather sporting, don't you think?

this is kind of a fun one, too, don't you think? the picture is smaller, so it's hard to see- i think they are little shopping bag replicas......

have a princess in your life? then she must have this for her room......

all of the above chandeliers are available from www.etsy.com/shop/whimsicalcollections. they run in the 325. - 375.

here is the perfect chandelier for the kitchen. this puppy can be found at www.etsy.com/shop/malindadickens & is priced at 148.

finally, for your consideration is a way to add color to any room- what do you think?

this is available at www.etsy.com/shop/sheriscrystals & is 289.95.

is red ever wrong? this is murano, by the way.

now some more exotic chandeliers. this one is by stuart . apparently he is an early pioneer in the repurposing movement (used to be called recycling). this chandelier is made from 1020 pairs of prescription sunglasses. kind of cool, huh?

sometimes there just isn't enough room for more chandeliers &

then it's time to get creative & incorporate them in other ways. here are a few possibilities.
who doesn't love chandelier earrings? nothing like mixing two passions- jewelry & chandeliers! there are so many different types of chandelier earrings. no reason for the passion to go unfulfilled! however, i must confess i don't own a pair of chandelier earrings. go figure...