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!)

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?!)