Old Fashioned Table Lamps

There is room in every historic house for old fashioned table lamps. Any interior designer will insist that a table lamp or two be placed in every room to reinforce the period design. For this house, early 20th century table lamps are the right style. An emphasis on lighting from the 30's and 40's needs to show up.

Other houses in this historic district use 19th century light fixtures, lamps and lights to carry out the period design themes. Many of them are reproduction table lamps, since the wiring of authentic 19th century lights is too risky. There is a small cottage industry in the area that pulls the old wiring out of old fashioned lamps and retrofits the light with modern electrical workings. These renovated lamps are very pricey, but invaluable to carry out a historic design theme.

Build a scene on a table top. Arrange a small photo or oil painting, a book, and several pieces of pottery or momentos next to an original or reproduction table lamp. Place a painting or wall sculpture nearby, allowing the light to glow on the tabletop arrangement and the wall accessory.

There is only space for one small table in the front room of this house, unless smaller scale furniture replaces what is currently in here. That will be sufficient to get the design juice of one table lamp into this area. At the back of the house in the large bedroom there is room for another table lamp, but instead of sitting on a table, it will be atop a bureau.

Antique Outdoor Lighting Fixtures

Lights for the front porch need to be selected right away. There is a contractor coming soon to replace the broken post that is barely holding up the porch roof. At the same time the threshold will get replaced and any lighting work needs to get done. It would be wonderful to put antique outdoor lighting fixtures on either side of the door.

Right now there is just a bare bulb poking out of the ceiling that covers the porch. The socket is controlled with a very short pull chain. It looks like someone had a lightweight paper shade taped up over the bulb, but that couldn't have lasted long in rainy weather.

Yes - the ideal would be a lantern type fixture placed about two feet from either side of the door. That would set the outdoor fixtures equidistant from the windows on both sides of the door. It would add another bit of symmetry to the front of the house, which is a bit of a hodge podge at the moment.

The best hardware finish would be silver to match with the greys and mauves of the paint and trim. Black outdoor wall lanterns would work, but the frame would have to be delicate, not heavy like the old fashioned garage and barn wall lanterns. This house is small and the outside decoration must be somewhat petite to maintain its cottage-like demeanor.

Wall Sconces for the Hallway

Wall sconces just speak old house. The fact that they just emerge from the wall and glow right there on the spot has long been a source of fascination. Later in life the fact that an electric line is hidden in the wall framing became more apparent, but as a child, sconces were a never-ending mystery.

Which is one reason why mounted sconces with a cord hanging down to an outlet are anathema. It just seems so messy and even trashy. So that half-hearted method of getting lights up off of floor and table surfaces just isn't going to work here.

Instead, spending the money to have a contractor fish through the electric line seems worthwhile. The hallway is a place that really could use two pretty wall sconces. The hall is short, wide and almost like a room unto itself. There are four doors and a wide entrance to the space, so there really is no room for any other type of lighting fixture.

There is a lot of traffic through the hallway, what with doors into the bedroom, office, guest room / utility room and bathroom. So the sconces must not extend too far out away from the wall. Tiny little sconces with a pretty old-fashioned flowered shade could be pretty. They wouldn't send out too much illumination, but there is an overhead light socket that can be retrofit to a more powerful ceiling mounted light to brighten up the space when necessary.

What Does Period Lighting Mean?

Evaluating the lighting design efforts for this house so far has been discouraging. There are so many options to bring a bright, airy feeling of lightness to what is now a dark and dismal dump. OK, maybe not that bad. But the overall design is not looked at favorably so far by anyone but me.

In discussions the term 'period lighting' keeps coming up. Generally that means early-American style in many contexts. But that is certainly not an era to be emulated here. Instead, the term is being used loosely in conversations to mean lighting fixtures and accessories contemporary with when the house was built.

Records at the Historical Society show an official date of 1930. So apparently the period lighting scheme in this remodeling effort needs to be the decade of the 1930s for decoration. Add in contemporary lighting with low visual impact to get light into the dark spots where it is definitely needed. Then make sure both the 1930s style and modern lighting match.

What a daunting task. Back to the drawing board. OR - perhaps, let the whole idea of period lighting flitter on by as just the opinion of others who talk a lot but don't have to live hear. An eclectic collection of lighting fixtures, lamps and sconces seems to be more suited to this owner's tastes. Fortunately the Historical Society can't dictate what the interior design looks like, even though they are very persistent in enforcing the exterior look and feel of houses in the historic district.

Antique Kitchen Lighting

The lighting in the kitchen of this fixer-upper is a huge problem. Right now the room has just one bare light bulb poking out of the ceiling. It is turned on with a pull chain that is rather cranky. Pull it in any way but just the right direction and there will be no light at all.

The current situation is certainly an example of antique kitchen lighting, but not in the good sense. A more appropriate description would be: A Hazard.  Or Ugly. The goal is to create a lovely farm kitchen type ambiance with small town early 20th century ambiance. Right now the vision of lovely rays of sun streaming through the window onto a checked tablecloth remains just a vision. The idea that a single light fixture in the middle of the ceiling could provide all the light needed in that room is also nebulous.

The best lighting design is going to include the single kitchen light fixture PLUS light over the very dark corner where the stove is PLUS lighting over the sink. Antique lights aren't going to do this room justice, although keeping with that genre for the ceiling fixture is doable.

There are modern light fixtures that can be combined with the antique look to make a coherent design in the room. Brushed nickel fixtures are one choice. Copper toned or pewter light fixtures would look nice, too. The top priority for that room, right now, is getting light directed where it is most useful for food preparation. That means the cooking area and the counter top have to be illuminated. Under the cupboard lighting may need to happen, but that will mean more electrical design work at the front end.

Old fashioned Lamp Shades

The words that describe old fashioned lamp shades are endearing: bell, curved, drum, curl. Even more attractive are the types of material used.  A lot of linen, heavy tapestry styled fabric that nearly blocked out all the light, paper, glass and metal. There are a lot of older lampshades that are constructed of fabric on fabric, often a flower print layered in pieces over an off white shade of linen.

The embellishments on the old fashioned shades can be quite dramatic. A favorite is the fringed bottom shade. Fringe can be made of braided or rolled threads or have a bric-a-brac look. Many Victorian lamp shades have beaded fringe. Sometimes tiny crystals were worked into the fringe, creating the illusion of light dancing as it reflected off the crystal's facets.

This old house deserves at least one fringed lamp shade when the place gets remodeled and redecorated. It won't be out in the front room. More likely the back guest room where rich linens, many pillows and a day bed will set the tone for comfort.

Another old-fashioned lamp shade will likely be affixed to a floor lamp in the bedroom or office. A pleated lampshade would add texture and dimension in the office to add an accent in a room where the hard lines of a desk and file cabinets can use a little softening.