![]() | | | ![Advertisement]() | ![]() | | |
![]()
Thursday, Nov. 4, 2004
The days are officially getting shorter. On the up side, we may be able to pry ourselves out of bed more easily because it's light out at 7 a.m., but on the down side, come 5 o'clock it's dark as Hades. Other than moving to the Southern Hemisphere for the winter, there's no choice but to suck it up and deal with the darkness for the next few months. One way to cope with lack of natural light is to increase the artificial variety. Lamps specifically made for people who suffer from S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) can do the trick for the sun deprived but do little to improve the decor. Fortunately, this has been a good year for seeing things in a whole new light. For example, a new generation of chandeliers is adding sparkle to hallways and dining rooms, as well as sitting rooms, bedrooms, powder rooms and even kitchens. They're available everywhere from Urban Outfitters (where a flower chandelier sells for $46) and Pottery Barn (styles in cast iron and bronze range from $200 to $350) to Anthropologie (a blue crystal drop chandelier sells for $860) and Annapolis Lighting, where traditional models with hand-cut Austrian crystals go for as much as $6,000. This season's abundance of accessories like brooches, fur scarves and tweed handbags seems to herald the death of minimalism and a celebration of more is more. And certainly it's hard to get more opulent than Ferruccio Laviani's Bourgie lamp for Kartell ($269, available locally at Mobili and Contemporaria this month). Recalling the baroque in modern translucent polycarbonate, the lamp offers elegance without the big bucks. Moreover, the pleated shade -- designed to create a thousand reflections -- increases the lamp's light output. Romance meets high-tech with Dutch designer Tord Boontje's Garland Shade Light, a lacy tumble of digitally etched and laser-cut stainless steel flowers and leaves that can be arranged around a bare bulb. It's $75 from Design Within Reach. For more impact, add another garland or two. A newer version of the lacelike shade by Boontje (called the Midsummer Shade Light) is constructed of Tyvek, a light, durable material with qualities of both paper and fabric. Diffusing light in a magical way, the light comes in white, green/yellow, pink/fuschia and red/yellow ($75 from MoMA's online store).
![]() | |
| | | |
![]()
|
|
|
