Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Chandelier Obsession

I believe that a house is not complete without a chandelier. I sometimes even say that a room is not complete without one. But that's just me. I love the fragile beauty of gorgeous crystal anyway, but when it is combined with warm candle- (or electric-) light, it becomes something completely different.

Just Chandeliers

Brocade Home


My latest urge is to put a chandelier in my bathroom. Picture it... a whitewashed wooden floor, tall narrow glass doors leading outside, a deep antique bath, a large Venetian mirror on one wall above a stunningly white vanity, a long mirror framed in pressed metal leaning against another wall, a basket of luxury L'Occitane products surrounded by thick fluffy towels, and the centrepiece of it all... a beautiful chandelier.

What could be more relaxing? Lovely.

Of course, this description does not match that of my own bathroom. Unfortunately the designers of my 1950's renovator's delight did not share my vision, and when creating the luxurious bathroom installed an ugly heavy chipboard vanity, white tiles with bile-green ribbon like detail (seriously, who designs these things?!), a small window overlooking a concrete verandah, and a long bar heater (complete with thick grey power cord hanging one metre to the powerpoint below) installed high on the wall above the aging spotted mirror. This will never be my dream bathroom as described above, but I am letting myself be distracted from some recent stresses to make some minor renovations to it. Pics will follow.

When I have made a little further progress on the Frenchicification (a word copyrighted to this blog ;) ) of the bathroom, I will start the hunt for my next chandelier. While it will never be a large luxury bathroom, it can still be beautiful. Here are some examples of what is inspiring me: