Mind you, even I have my limits...

Karin L

Here is a link that might be useful: lamp table in exultant condition

Well.... not my taste......but if you are into rock hard maple....then it's perfect!
But....don't change the glass globes....and try it again with the copper shades....If you are goin g for a certain vintage....at least be true to that vintage...
Hope you were wearing your asbestos underwear over at the lighting forum!!
would they be the same people who paint everything Oil rubbed bronze?

That's what that means! Thanks lindac. I'm mostly a lurker and post occasionally. Therefore am not familiar with a lot of the abbreviations. ORB has appeard more than a few times and I could'nt for the life of me figure out what it meant. Not a big fan of cyber shorthand but do use a few common ones.

Sorry Karin. Not my taste either. I do think that if you carefully pack away the original globes so that the piece can be reunited at some future time, it would be ok to change them out. It's not as if they are permanently attached.

I don't like it but I like that you like it. :)

I didn't like my colonial maple hutch thing when I got it either but now I do. These things grow on you.

I don't think the swirly floral rococo etching flatters the design. They should have been hobnail milk glass shades, IMO. That matches the rest of it perfectly.
Casey

Linda, very funny! I wouldn't have posted there or here if I were sensitive about it :-) It's not even really my taste, but I get a kick out of the fact that it was ever made. It might be like that Russell Peters routine where he talks about his dad always wanting to be Canadian, by doing things like barbequeing. I feel very Canadian having this lamp! I appreciate your sympathy, Fori :-)

Lighting design is a bit of a crazy field anyway, even currently.

Taste-wise, Casey, you've nailed it; there's just too much going on. I would like some pretty plain milk glass shades, I'm not crazy about hobnail even (I just found out what that is, on Etsy). Any idea where I could get some with a 2 and 5/8 inch opening?? Doesn't seem to be too common. The originals are also very light weight and I'm not sure this fixture would take heavy shades. I will be making the rounds of the likely stores locally this week. HD actually has some candidates, but wrong opening size.

Here it is with hats - I cannot handle the hats, Linda, no matter how authentic! And look at the link below - I'm not as alone as I thought!

Karin L

Here is a link that might be useful: Etsy - more copper hats

It's the "Thing"....go for it!...In for a penny in for a pound!

Okay...the hats totally make it!

I almost love it that way.

I had to look at the other thread. They dissed your wallpaper????!!!

That is wonderful wallpaper. I might change the pink walls to green when I moved in but sure wouldn't touch that wallpaper!

Yes, fori, they did. Which made me realize I might just be old fogeyish enough for this lamp because we just decided to keep the wallpaper when we give the kitchen a much needed new paint job soon. I appreciate the advice about colour - we did consider green, but I think we have settled on a dusty light blue, at least on the ceiling. Green would be good except the cabinets are green.

But I am NOT ready for the hats!!!!! Fortunately they are easy to store. I think I might actually not bother changing the glass just because the originals will be a pain to store anywhere other than on the lamp itself, and I couldn't give them away - given that the whole thing even came in the original box! The hats give the whole room a goldish glow too, as if turning us into living sepia.

Here is the other end of the room - the panels in the cupboards are temporarily unfinished, pending the paint job (and please forgive the evidence of imperfect housewifery).

Thanks for sharing the humour!

Karin L

O yes. Green won't do at all. Blue would be nice since you've already got your green.

I love the detail on the tile counter.

Karin - I didn't comment earlier, remembering the old rule: "if you can't say something nice..." But now seeing the rest of the room I think the the fixture looks cool amid your other eclectic things. I didn't think I liked tiled counters either but yours are gorgeous.

I never even noticed the lighting forum before. Maybe people get exiled there now instead of disney?

Karin - personally, I think the fixture is pretty cool... However, sounds like a good thing YOU were the one to find it! (I'm making a mental note to myself to avoid the lighting forum! Bunch of sweeties, eh? Lol!).

I also think it would look better with plain milk-glass shades - even if you go with hobnail (easy to find), perhaps the little hobnails wouldn't be very noticeable? The wood design gives me a "nautical" vibe, lol, like a repurposed ships helm? :-)

Love the rest of the kitchen - what color are the cupboard panels going to be? The green tiles in the counter tie it all together nicely... I'd never think of that!

I'd be happy to overlook all of the evidence of imperfect housewifery, if I could find any! (Gee-whiz, is there a tiny crumb on the counter somewhere, that I'm missing?).

Psst!!.....she has dishes draining on the counter!! Oh the shame!!!!!

That tile work....the brass towel rod...brick wall... cutting boards on the wall and that stool!!...just great!
But....that light fixture doesn't need hobnail globes.....that will make it tacky for sure...that will take it out of the "retro purist" class and make it into something found at a thrift shop that is painted and repurposed!

My kitchen has never ever looked that clean except after I moved and the Realtor hired a cleaning crew.

Thanks for the compliments on the kitchen, Maureen and KS, and for your magnanimity on the light fixture and the housekeeping :-)

The funny thing about these things is that they seem to come in waves. Not only did I find that one linked above on Etsy, but since we are looking to replace all three of the kitchen fixtures I was perusing craigslist when this one surprised a laugh out of me:

$30, in case anyone's interested. I think the glass shades are even the same as mine, should I decide I need a back-up supply. And then, there is a new thread posted on the windows forum with a photo in which I swear there is yet another light fixture with hats (see link below). I'd honestly never seen such a thing before I bought mine, and here is a deluge!

Our perusal actually just this weekend resulted in us buying some absolutely outrageous fixtures that are going to make our lighting like something out of an antiques horror show, but we just love them. They are a set of 2 fixtures, one 6-arm and one 3-arm, and although we really only needed the small one we felt they should not be separated! So we are trying to figure out how to rearrange all the fixtures in the house to accommodate them both. The small one will go in the other end of the kitchen from the colonial one, but the big one... as DH says, that one needs its own room! They need full restoration first and the small one is already apart, but here is the big one fetchingly posed under the colonial (the glass is wrapped in saran).

Problem is, now I'm really going to be stumped for what colour to paint the walls and panels!

Karin L

Here is a link that might be useful: Incidental light fixture photo on Windows forum

The lighting forum is new but as far as I can tell tends to be very technical, rather than aesthetic, which I think is a shame given the fabulous artistry that light fixtures (even modern ones) represent. They are all very interested in recessed lighting... sigh.

Karin L

Oh! That new fixture is fabulous!!!!! Love it Love it.
As for the "hats" as you so disparagingly call them.....back in the day....they were high style!\
Keep them...in for a penny in for a pound I always say!!

LOL Fori, I took the picture that day because I had somehow gotten it so much cleaner than usual! But I hadn't scrubbed the sink, and I never noticed in person where I always push the drawers shut... Dishes notwithstanding, but I don't have a dishwasher to hide them in anymore :-)

Thanks Linda! The new fixtures were also fairly economical, so we are pretty thrilled, even with the work ahead of us.

Don't worry about the hats - and I don't mean that disparagingly! They are safely tucked away. I think I have the best ones of all the similar fixtures - mine have piecrust edges :-). But you can see in the CL photo why I don't like them on, in part. The hats are dark, and the contrast with the light is too harsh. There is some cartoon character that I keep thinking of when I look at my fixture with the hats on, but I can't put my finger on which one.

Here is a close-up of the porcelain parts of the new lamp, the small one. The one closest to the camera has some scraping from the lamp having been put together wrong, but otherwise everything is in good shape.

Karin L

This new one is fabulous, and not for being kitschy!

Oh, good grief - lol! Clean dishes, in the drainer. Dirty dishes, in the sink - or on the gorgeous counters... THAT I could relate to. (Apologizing for washing, rinsing, & drying dishes. What is this world coming to?). You are TIDY! (I've read your posts in organizing forum, & thought we were more alike, lol! Now I see you're one of "those people"...).

Like the new fixtures even more, now that I've seen the close-ups. That golden tint is one of my favorites - if the color were deep enough, it might make a great paint color. (IF you're willing to bring another color into the room... The light might help tie it all together, isn't the green part of the shades similar to, while lighter than, your cabinet color?).
I can see it working, or being a bizarre kaleidoscope of dizzying proportions. (I'm no palette expert, lol, went through a BRIGHT COLOR phase, my Dad said my house looked like a Mexican Restaraunt! And he was right.).
I feel the urge to go do my dishes, now, while trying to figure out the cartoon character also. It's driving me nuts - Marvin the Martian?