The Beauty of the Bulb: Light bulb-exposing industrial lighting trend

I love my cfl’s for the sole purpose of saving energy costs, don’t get me wrong…but I hate the light quality that they produce. Therefore I’ve relegated them to use in our reading lights, lamps with patterned shades [to help disguise the light color], and any overhead lights with frosted glass shades.  So with that disclaimer, I launch into a post about bare bulb lighting.  It seems to be everywhere these days, as are edison bulbs.  (Even my mother-in-law has used them in her new guest house!)  And now that we’ve moved into a new apartment with TERRIBLE cheap, brass apartment light fixtures, we’re looking for some relatively inexpensive light fixtures that we can replace these gaudy brass ones with.

Now, I’m sure you’re thinking…why would you replace them?  This isn’t your apartment!  Well…true that.  But we will be living here for quite some time, and when we move we can always put back up the ugly ones and take the new ones with us.  Sooo…with that being said, here are a few of the bulb-exposing fixtures that have caught our eye during our lighting search.

1. Burnside Bulb Pendant from Rejuvenation $112, comes in 12 finishes and different classic cord colors. 2. Blazon Gleam Copper Pendant from Anthropologie $98.  3. Barely There Pendant from Anthropologie $248. 4. Mechanic’s Beacon Pendant – Large Flower from Anthropologie, $148. 5. Defiance Bare Bulb ceiling mount fixture at Schoolhouse Electric, $89. 6.  Clark Flushmount Ceiling Fixture by Wilmette Lighting at Affordable Lamps, $200. It reminds me of this Roost table lamp, but for your ceiling!  7. Clark Modern Pendant Light by Wilmette Lighting at Affordable Lamps, $292.

1.  Wayland Pendant from Schoolhouse Electric, $151 as shown 2.  Porcelain Bare Bulb from any local hardware store, $3.50  3.  Lyon Ceiling Mount fixture from Schoolhouse Electric, $127 as shown 4.  Vintage Pendant Lights from Moon River Chattel, $300

1. Dose of Color Fabric Cord bare bulbs at Anthropologie, $68 (These also look great when used with a lampshade as a hanging pendant over a dining table.  The fabric cord is a great pop of color!)  2.  Roost Berlin Pendant Light from Velocity Art & Design, $163

Soon, you’ll see what we ended up choosing for ourselves and our new apartment!  Hint:  One of these we already owned and brought with us.  A second we chose out of this grouping, and the third wasn’t on here at all.  Haha!  (Everything can’t be bare bulb, y’know!  After all, variety is the spice of life!)

Sofa Hunt: Timothy Oulton’s Reggio

I’ve owned the same sofa since 1998.  It was the first big purchase I made after graduating college, and I got it from Storehouse Furniture.  (Boy did I felt very grown up!)  And even though it’s still a great sofa, it’s definitely seen better days.  Therefore Nick and I have been keeping our eyes open for a style/shape/size that fits our lifestyle as it is today.   And although I’m not entirely sure that this little guy from Timothy Oulton is the perfect one for us and our everyday use, I must say that I absolutely fell in love with it when I saw it today at ABC Carpet & Home in Union Square.  OMG…so perfect in so many ways.

Vintage-inspired Chenille Bedspreads

Did your Grandma have an amazing (and very colorful) Chenille bedspread in her house, just like mine?  Over the years, I’ve kept my eye out for one of these at vintage shops, flea markets, and occasionally ebay but never seemed to find any that were in decent shape, didn’t smell like moth balls or were large enough for a modern bed.  Well, if you’re like me and you’ve been searching for a 50′s chenille bedspread, then look no further because I’ve found new ones in the most unlikely place — Vermont Country Store.  (Who knew?!)  The pink/yellow sunburst at the top is my favorite.

They’re actually pretty affordable too!  They range from $59.99 up to $199 (depending on the size and detail).  I’m just surprised that they offer king size!  One of these would look so amazing in a vintage-inspired bedroom, cottage-chic guest room, or [dare-I-say] little girl’s room.  (I am of the opinion that this would be fun variant for my master bedroom, but recognize that not everyone feels the same as I do about pastels….and therefore begrudgingly admit they’d be good for the youngsters too.)

Anyways…happy shopping!  I’m so excited that I found these!!  (Oh, and p.s. they have solid colors too…like all white!)

I’m not gonna lie. I kinda like these kitschy plates.

This Etsy seller (BeatUpCreations) takes antique china and serveware and updates them from Granny to modern-day hipster wall art.  This would make a cute (and inexpensive) wall decor statement.  Fun for a small bathroom, hallway, or adding to a larger collection of art for a bit of humor.  My favorite is this one of R2-D2.

See more whimsical pieces (including a zombie family portrait) at her Etsy shop HERE.

My current favorites

Iron (Antique) Bed Love, Part 2

Well, I guess by the title you know which choice we made for our master bedroom!  Although we liked the quality of Charles Rogers’ beds, we didn’t really like any of their king size styles.  (Definitely have to give them props for making quality beds with iron & real brass versus aluminum and painted brass finish like the competition though!)  So that just left one last option — hunting for an antique bed frame that we could convert to a king size…and someone to do it.  After a lot of digging I discovered that there aren’t that many people who are willing to take on the trouble to convert an antique bed.  Who knew?!  My search only turned up just a couple of people across the nation!  The perfect choice for us was Hobnail Antique Beds in Pawling, NY.

Look at all those gorgeous antique beds!  I had a wonderful afternoon with the owner, Jerry.  In the two hours I was there chatting with him and choosing the perfect bed for us, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the finished product and thrilled to meet someone who took so much pride in his craftsmanship.  Jerry strips, cuts, welds, and paints the beds himself.  I got to look at some of the beds he was currently working on and as well as a few he’d just finished and his craftsmanship was beautiful.  You couldn’t even tell these beds hadn’t always been a queen/king size.  Also, he made some beds for a few famous folk, including Cyndi Lauper and Kevin Bacon.

Anyways, without further ado, here’s the bed that we chose.  It’s actually two twin beds that are going to be put together to become a king! ( Sorry about the terrible quality of the photos.  I forgot my normal camera and was using the iphone.)

Here’s a closer up version of what the bed looks like.  There is a brass bar on the headboard and footboard.  One of the big reasons we liked it, was the simple style of the castings…and how close together the bars are — which is good for making sure your pillows don’t fall back behind the headboard!  (Some people like to read in bed, y’know!)

Jerry was kind enough to pose with my new beds…and in about a month they’ll be done!  I can’t wait!!!!

So if you’re looking for a quality iron bed that’s converted to your modern-day queen or king size, I can’t recommend Hobnail Antique Beds enough.  (Oh, and his prices are competitive with new beds…what more info do you need?!)

Iron Bed Love, Part 1

Okay…a little back story:  N’s family just gave us a set of king size mattresses.  Woohoo!  Big upgrade, right?!  We were certainly excited, and after years without an actual bed frame we decided this might be a good impetus to get us to focus our decorating attentions on the master bedroom.  (You’ve noticed I’ve never even hinted at it on this blog, right?  Well, there’s a reason for that.  Ha!)  So the hunt began for the perfect bed, and the thing is…I’m picky…

We looked at Restoration Hardware (too expensive), Pottery Barn (too bland), Ikea (too low-quality), “regular furniture store” (just plain yucky), Room and Board (not our style), and a host of other ones (all ruled out for various reasons).  The more we looked, the more we realized that I wasn’t going to be happy with anything that wasn’t a classically made iron bed.   This seemed to leave only two options:  1) Charles P. Rogers – still making beds the old fashioned way or 2) just buy an antique and have it converted to a king size.  Check back soon to see what we did!

New candle love!!

Just got the most amazing new candle today!  It’s Royal Apothic brand, Edwardian Fireplace scent.  When I pulled it out of the package, I let my co-workers smell it and they [also] loved it so much that they asked me to light it right then.  So I took this picture of my new candle burning on my desk at work for everyone to enjoy!  Haha.   (The scent is hard to describe, but I’d say it’s very slightly masculine…but clean at the same time.  Nothing like an old chimney or ashes, like you would think with a name like “Edwardian Fireplace.”)  You can go purchase it HERE.

It doesn’t hurt that the packaging is also really cute.  Definitely a good gift.  Maybe I’ll get some family members this for Christmas…  Hmmm…

New Artist Series from Book City Jackets

My friend Nishat that I’ve posted about before, is featured in Book City Jackets’ new Artists Edition No. 2 along with Cheeming Boey and Michael Hsiung. BCJ’s mission is to make every book beautiful by creating unique book covers printed on recycled kraft paper. Pretty nifty, right? It reminds me of when I used to do that in middle school…except mine was covered in horrible doodling rather than beautiful art. They’re available at Book City Jackets [dot] com.

I don’t think you know how badly I “need” this…

Terrain at Styers has just started selling their wares online.  I’m pretty fortunate to live close enough to the store to just drive down there and go shopping, and yet I never do…and therefore I look through their website and lust after some of their items.  One in particular is this vintage Texas Glider.

It would look so perfect on my new back deck.  Once it’s finished of course.