Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Choosing the Best Crystal Chandelier for Your Home

If you wanted to add a spark and charm to your home, why not consider crystal chandelier in adding elegance and charm to your space.

There are loads of varieties of chandeliers, but the crystal chandeliers are normally picked by people since it is considered as an excellent piece of art that can be put in a home.

In looking of the best crystal chandelier that will greatly fit your, you will have to look for the size, the shape, and of course the style and the charm as well. Actually, there are heaps of choices to pick from. But in choosing the best crystal chandelier, there are some factors to consider. You have to look at the function of the room, the size, the color of the room and the overall motif and design of your home. You have to consider all of these factors in order to find a crystal chandelier that will fit to the style and design of a home. Indeed, the process of selecting a crystal chandelier takes plenty of work, but as soon as you can find the right one, the work done is worth it.

One way in looking for the right crystal chandelier choice for your home is by searching in some home improvement stores. Usually, these stores present large variety that you can buy and take home in that day.

If in case, you still haven’t seen the right crystal chandelier for your home, better to search over specialty stores. In specialty stores, a crystal chandelier can be ordered if not in stock. There are even some who let their customers make their own personalized design.

Just like fashion ornaments that added glamour to your home, crystal chandelier works in that way as well. Nowadays, crystal chandeliers are known with its modern look that can fit with modern interior styles and arrangements.

The modernization of crystal chandelier styles is characterized with the combination of traditional elements with modern furnishings. Crystal chandeliers are now popular to lot of people who plan to decorate or redecorate their homes. They believe that crystal chandeliers can add spark and charm to homes.

Large Willow Crystal light, a contemporary design, is a crystal chandelier that features Egyptian crystal droplets draped from sculptural chrome arms, is certainly welcomed by people who are now open with eccentric and bolder designs. Actually, people nowadays are more courageous to try out daring and bolder styles.

A crystal chandelier choice which is mainly a key trend now is black, which gives a new twist to the traditional crystal. Black is made as an artistic agent to the home which is made to last for a long period of time. These black crystals are highly adaptable. These black crystals can be put to any places you desire.

Yes, crystal chandeliers can add beauty, spark and charm to your home. But take time to choose the best one that will fit to your home. Better to consider the space where you will put it, the style and design of your home, the furniture and fixtures, since in considering these factors, you can come up with the appropriate crystal chandelier that will fit you style. You also have to consider your budget, better to search and search maybe through home improvement stores, online, specialty stores, until you finally find the best crystal chandelier that will fit your style and your budget as well.

Eliza Maledevic from http://www.Jump2top.com, a SEO Company. Visit GoldenAge Crystal Chandeliers & Lighting Fixtures at http://www.goldenageusa.com

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Residential Art Glass Lighting - Design Trends in Chandeliers, Sconces, & Pendants

Much in the way jazz altered our concept of music, glass art has changed our expectations of residential lighting. In fact, glass art lighting is being hailed as one of the hottest new trends to hit luxury home design. According to 25-year Southern California interior designer Greg Griffith, G. Griffith & Co. of Destin, FL, “It’s emerging as a transitional point for a more energetic look. From Asian to 18th Century, every style and design can incorporate glass art lighting. The fact that these are actual sculptured pieces means you’re adding art to the room without cluttering the wall.”

Aside from aesthetics, the benefit to glass art lighting is that it’s so flexible, it ends up resolving many design conflicts. Take, for example, the story of the Wisdom Window. This stained glass piece was created by a California glass artist to create a welcoming light at the end of a dark, New York apartment hallway. The artist created four matching sconces, but wanted the end of the hallway to feel like a window. He innovated a design where a diffuser sheet will be installed underneath the stained glass piece, and lit from behind.

One New York glass artist developed a unique way to illuminate her bathroom. She created her own mosaic glass sink and lit it from underneath to create a warm, amber glow. It also doubles as her nightlight. To underscore the look of an underlit sink, matching sconces are ideal. Some kitchen designers are commissioning glass art sconces and pendants to match underlit glass kitchen countertops. This creates interesting, ambient lighting in a more finished-looking lighting package.

Glass art lighting can be a subtle accent, or a prism through which the light bathes a room in a swatch of exotic colors. “I find many decorators driving décor based on the lighting fixtures,” says Seattle-based glass artist, Suzanne Guttman. “It’s easy to fall in love with a tentacled pendant light or chandelier and make it the centerpiece of a room.”

The Cost of Beautiful

Investing in gorgeous glass art lighting is less daunting than one may assume. A Bellagio budget isn’t necessary to incorporate museum-quality glass lighting into a residential design. Sconces range from $400 to $1,200; small pendant lighting (suspended by one point in the ceiling) ranges from $300 to $600; larger pendants and chandeliers can range from $1,500 to $10,000. Serious collectors consider glass art an investment as well as being an aesthetic piece, just as they would an original painting, or a piece of antique furniture.

Glass Art Lighting 101

Once a homeowner decides on glass art lighting, it’s helpful to know a little about the glass and where it should be used, based on its physical characteristics. Here are some tips:

Blown glass has some limitations to the size and diameter that an artist can create. Some blown glass lighting utilizes many pieces in its design to create a larger, more sculptural effect.

Cast glass is very beautiful, but quite unusual in lighting because it is very heavy to suspend. One glass artist has created a woven glass technique that takes on the look of woven fabric, and results in a glass art lighting fixture that feels like a glass blanket.

Fused & slumped glass is popular for glass art lighting. Through the use of molds, fusing allows the artist to create large diameter canopied type lighting, thus enabling a single shade to be up to 48” in diameter. This creates consistency in shape and wonderful, unusual textures.

Etched glass is another wonderful medium for flat panel lighting. Pieces such as The Three Graces, by glass artist Margaret Oldman, can be lit with plain or multi-colored fiber optics, depending on the look a designer is trying to achieve.

Mosaic and stained glass are similar, in that they’re both ideal for flat panel lighting. Artists will often incorporate Italian smalti glass, blown sheets of transparent glass broken into small pieces, or dichroic glass, which is coated on one side with a metallic-like mirror finish.

Buyer Beware

One thing homeowners should remember, especially with lighting, is to be sure that the glass artist they’ve chosen understands how the electrical specs will dovetail with the piece, and that they know U.L. standards. As founder of Glass Artists Gallery, I estimate that close to 30% of our first-time customers come to us because they had negative experiences commissioning residential glass art lighting on their own. We are very careful about screening the artists we represent to make sure they understand the technical specifications

In short, glass art lighting choices become a very personal way to reveal a homeowner’s fingerprint on the interior design. As George Bernard Shaw once said, “You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.”

For more information or to see thousands of images of art glass lighting, visit Art Lighting Gallery

Jack Healy is part owner of Functional Art Gallery, LLC - Functional Art Gallery - a growing family of online resources for the designer, architect, builder and discerning homeowner. The company focuses on handcrafted functional & architectural works of art for both residential and commercial projects. The Functional Art Gallery family includes Glass Artists Gallery, Sinks Gallery and Art Lighting Gallery. Together these resources provide the largest collection of artisan and designer products available in North America.

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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Contemporary Chandeliers are Popular Today

n the past, as one think of a chandelier, images of expensive crystal and glass chandelier found in rich and famous mansions are the ones that come into their minds.

Before, the broad impression of people to chandeliers is that they are too expensive and too bold. Though, contemporary chandeliers nowadays are the ‘in thing’. They are not too complicated and too elaborate, and they come with different styles and designs.

Certainly, there are a lot of varieties of contemporary chandeliers that one can choose from, the contemporary chandelier that will fit your home.

Contemporary chandeliers can be made of numerous different metal finishes, such as bronze, brass, nickel, chrome, and even silver. There are heaps of bronze finishes such as weathered bronze, imperial bronze, tannery bronze, dorian bronze, and sable bronze patinas. With the nickel finishes, one can get from brushed nickel, brushed nickel with chrome, iron oxide, olde pewter, olde iron, polished brass, empire silver, distressed black, and so on.

Indeed, there are even a lot of varieties in terms of the shades such as marble glass shades, etched opal glass shades, antique etched glass, Venetian Scavo glass, double French Scavo glass, umber with teadust glass, umbered alabaster, silk shades, and a lot, lot more.

There are also contemporary chandeliers that are made of glass, but there are pricey than those contemporary chandeliers made with metal. Contemporary chandeliers comes with different patterns, color schemes, styles and designs, each gives and put distinct glow to any room. Contemporary chandelier can also give a room a unique way of giving light to a home. As for the lights, contemporary chandeliers offers porcelain lighting that can give a home a fine ambience.

In terms of the number of lights in the contemporary chandelier, there a lot of varieties as well, it depends on what you desire to put on your home. There are heaps of types of contemporary chandeliers and they all vary in styles, designs, color schemes, it’s really up to you, on which type you like choose that will fit to the style and design of your home.

Besides, the main purpose of the contemporary chandelier is to give a home a modern interior decoration. And creativity in choosing a contemporary chandelier for your home is required, since you will be the one who will search for the right contemporary chandelier that will suit your style, your design and your home.

Now that there are lots of contemporary chandeliers available in the market, store, on the internet, and so on, all you can to do is search for the right one. Since there are many chandeliers out there, everyone can turn there homes into art gallery. These amazing pieces can make a home more appealing and attractive.

Whether you decide to have a contemporary chandelier that is simple or uncomplicated or bold and rich, surely no one will go wrong from the many types of contemporary chandeliers to beautify the interior of a home. All it takes is find the certain piece with the lots of different contemporary chandelier that will fit to your home. Just be creative enough in searching for the right contemporary chandelier for you. Eliza Maledevic from http://www.Jump2top.com, a SEO Company. Know more about Crystal Chandeliers & Lighting Fixtures at http://www.goldenageusa.com

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Monday, November 26, 2007

Contemporary Chandeliers of Today

Not quite distant in the past, the simple mention of the word "chandelier" would invoke images of extravagant glass and crystal objects hanging in every room of some 18th century manor. The general impression that people have regarding chandeliers is that they are too bold, too lavish, and most of all too expensive. While this may be true of some higher end chandelier designs, there are many different types of contemporary chandeliers that can tote up style and originality to one’s home at a very reasonable cost. Likewise, these chandeliers can render a whole new way of looking at the rooms that have been taken for granted. There are several types of contemporary chandeliers that may be a perfect fit in one’s life.

The main purpose that a contemporary chandelier serves is to give a home's modern interior decoration an added emphasis without the risk of exaggeration. Whereas a crystal chandelier is certain to be a beautiful piece in the proper setting (such as a Victorian style bedroom or a roomy dining area), many homes today have laid-back motifs. The different types of contemporary chandeliers embody perfect harmony to nearly any modern interior living space.

Contemporary chandeliers can be made of many different metal finishes, such as bronze, brass, nickel, chrome, and even silver. There are also contemporary chandelier types that are designed with glass, although these tend to be pricier than ones made of metal. What really distinguishes contemporary chandeliers from fancier more traditional counterparts is the emphasis to pragmatism in shape, design, and function. Indeed, most contemporary chandeliers employ an assortment of patterns and color schemes, which help to put in a distinct and warm glow to any room. Contemporary chandeliers also bring forward unique patterns of not only shades and holders, but also of the lights themselves. The features on most contemporary chandelier shades are really what set them apart from other chandelier types, and by and large imagination is the only limiting factor to these designs. As for the lights, candles are out porcelain lighting is in. Contemporary chandeliers offer porcelain lighting to render a subtle ambience.

With regards to the number of lights used in most contemporary chandeliers, one’s personal taste of style is a primary determining matter. Contemporary chandeliers can feature as few or as many as one desires. The alternatives and the variety truly are boundless with these different types of contemporary chandeliers.

The days of categorizing chandeliers as expensive or garish are certainly behind modern times. With so many different types of contemporary chandeliers available, everyone now has the ability to turn homes into something that approximates an art gallery. These intimate pieces are sure to render the rooms in one’s home an enhanced personality. Whether one decides on a contemporary chandelier that is simple and understated, or bold and colorful, one cannot go wrong with adding any from the many different types of chandeliers to the interior of the home.

Earl Juanico

http://www.goldenageusa.com

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