Advantages of old chandeliers

• may be cheaper
• may have interesting history – the chandelier below belonged to an empress.

Disadvantage of old chandeliers

• The time factor – I suppose it depends on how much time do you have on your hands to go around antique shops to find the right chandelier as apposed to going on the internet to find a new one.
• Great deal of old chandeliers are patted together – two damaged chandeliers are made into one. Recently I have cleaned a chandelier that was purchased in Rome for good money which had five original arms and five arms that evidently came from a much smaller chandelier and alternating these misshaped the chandelier.  Attempts were made to hide this fact by overloading the chandelier by a great deal of crystal chains and trimmings. There is nothing wrong with this practice as long as the final client is aware of this fact and is OK with it.
• Crystals on the older chandeliers are what I call aged – scratched and chipped due to incorrect storage, careless cleaning or any other manipulation that took place during the years.

Also look at the quality of the crystals as you may be paying more than you should for the given quality.

• Electrical wiring – often the seller leaves the rewiring responsibilities to the buyer which is, unless you are an electrician,  can be a rather time consuming affair. Not only  have you spent time on the internet to find someone near you who does these at reasonable price, but you also have to take it there and pick it up again. Before you know it this little job takes  a day out of your life without even asking.
• Hidden structural faults – we were doing a simple rewiring job and as we lowered the chandelier down we noted a broken structural rod which had to be repaired.  In the workshop we found out that three of the four iron rods were fractured in such a way that they could not be repaired and had to be replaced.  I shall never know how the chandelier held together.  This was actually rather complicated as due to the unusual size of the thread we had to have a tool manufactured in order to replace the rods and the project stretched from 2 to around 10 weeks.

Disadvantage of new chandelier

• no interesting history

Advantages of new chandeliers

• not chipped crystal

• good quality materials – our manufacturers are using brass as base material 
• good quality finish – as with any progress, manufacturers have improved finishing processes so you have your chandelier like new for longer.
• no hidden faults – manufacturer one year warranty
• great selection – nearly all new chandeliers come in variety of sizes and configurations and you will not have any problems finding identical chandeliers should you require more then one chandelier for your room.
• made to measure – width can easily be adjusted by changing arms for larger or smaller once.
• choice of finish – you can have any chandelier in either gold, antique gold or nickel finish,

some manufacturers do 23.6 carat gold plating

, ,antique nickel … 

• choice of crystal quality – most chandeliers can be either in 24-30%PbO, Swarovski Spectra or Swarovski Elements

• matching wall lights, table lamps and candelabras – most chandeliers have these in one, two, three or five arm option
• no need to rewire
• buy from reputable manufacturer
• easy to get spare parts

I have not included the more generic points such as the manufacturer.  There were good and bad manufacturers hundred years ago as is the case now.  An old chandelier from top manufacturer will look as if it was made yesterday whereas newish chandelier from poor quality manufacturer will look bad well before its time. 

So keep your eyes open what ever you are buying and if in doubt make yourself a list like mine.

Renata

Concrete is my least favourite ceiling structure due to a) the complexity of anchoring the chandelier hook into the concrete and b) overcoming the awkward void which can vary from 1 inch to 3 feet. Unless you are a very practical person or were overseeing the construction/reconstruction of the actual room you will not be aware of the voids existence not to mention the size. For the small voids you can use the plate hook, for the larger voids there are various types of brackets available.

First of all you need to find out the exact construction so a thorough site inspection is critical. You need to know whether there is under floor heating and if so how deep it is to make sure there is absolutely no chance you could drill through the heating pipe. If you cannot be 100% certain then do not proceed with the installation because damaging the under floor heating pipe would release gallons of water which cannot be stopped and the thing you can do is to put bucket under the flow, stop the feed to the tank and empty the buckets for an hour or two. Next is to call your insurance company to agree the commencement of repair works which basically means digging up some of the concrete, repair of the pipe and restoring everything to the original state. This would cost you hundreds of hours on the phone and thousands of pounds in damages and delays so your insurance premium would go up ten fold. Other hidden dangers are various cables and in older properties gas pipes which can be literally anywhere and I actually hang one of my chandeliers of a disused gas pipes which was just in the perfect spot.

Another difficult aspect is the actual anchoring so please make sure you are using proper concrete fixing

and taking into consideration the distance between the holes on the plate hook

because if these are too close together you may have to make a separate base plate of 4×2 or similar to avoid jeopardising the integrity of that particular concrete spot by the close proximity of drilling.

And yet another difficult aspect is accessing the concrete ceiling. There are many types of suspended ceilings and the larger the void the larger the access point for the installation is required.  A competent project manager will have all the necessary chandelier fixings done prior to the suspended ceiling installation going up however such creatures are few and far between and I would say almost mythical. A great way and sometimes the only way is to hide the access holes by a ceiling rose. Just make sure the ceiling rose is suitable for the room.

Wooden ceilings are easy in comparison

however as you have to attach the chandelier hook to a joist if there is none in the right position you may need to access the joist to fit a noggin. Access can be either from above or below depending which option is less destructive. On a recent installation we had to move a double bed, a cot and newly laid carpet to put in a noggin, which was easier than taking off the new ceiling rose, cutting a hole in the ceiling to get to the joists from beneath, putting new plaster board piece in, re-plastering and putting the ceiling rose back up. Both options are time consuming and any unnecessary work could be avoided by careful project management or just a bit of common sense –do the messy hook installation before you put the tiles, hard floor or new carpets down, before the plaster board goes up and most certainly before the ceiling rose.

Whatever the structure, please take few minutes to think and plan ahead and if you struggle to come up with a solution just call us to see if we can come up with something.

Take care.

With regards of the metal parts quality in second hand chandeliers you look for the tarnishing.Tarnish is basically discoloration of the metal, most common are rust speckles beneath the varnish so it cannot be wiped off nor can it be polished off with a polish paste.

Good quality chandeliers are made of brass, lesser quality chandeliers are made of all sorts of metal compounds, some of which are prone to rusting.

I do not mean chandeliers made of wrought iron which is craft by itself and could be of high quality depending on the skill of the man who makes it. Brass darkens if left natural so for bright gold finish the brass is lacquered, heat treated and vanished.

Antique gold finish is also completed by vanishing

whereas nickel finish is actually nickel plated and real gold finish is also done by electroplating.

Finishes nowadays are long lasting as long as the procedures are followed correctly as would be done by any reputable manufacturer. Any shortcuts within the finishing procedures will result in premature tarnishing which is mainly caused by humidity and fluctuation of temperature. There is nothing worse for a chandelier then sitting in an unheated garage or a loft where the temperature can vary from -5 to 25 degree C. Not to mention the effect of the varied temperature on a chandelier that is just sitting in a box not suspended as chandeliers were designed for, which unsurprisingly causes metal arms to distort and glass arms to brake. The stress on chandeliers stored incorrectly is great, but more worryingly may compromise integrity of the structure itself and when rehung may end up on the floor or worse injuring someone.

Trimmings quality vary greatly from plastic through glass to crystals. There is not much point talking about plastic trimmings which do not look good with the exception of some hyper modern pieces. Traditional glass trimmings are generally not of as high quality and there is no point of fine finishing as you cannot achieve the great sparkles without PbO anyway unless you are Mr Swarovski. Now for the crystal trimmings, classification of crystal vary from country to country from as little as 5% up to 31% PbO. Good quality crystal contains between 24% – 31% PbO.

There are hundreds of shapes and sizes of these crystals so there is a great selection to choose from.

Exceptionally high quality crystal is made by Swarovski. Swarovski produces two ranges: Spectra which is an unleaded crystal and the best value for quality

and Strass which is 31% PbO and I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this is the best crystal there is.

Joining of the crystals is very important due to aesthetic and holding aspect. The cheapest form of joining is by a ring resembling a key ring, but smaller which is time

effective however after washing you may find rusting which can also discolour the crystal.  

The best form of  crystal connectors are made of brass and are in the shape of either a pin twisted into various forms of joins 

, an O shape…..

Old chandeliers were joined by a wire simply cut to size, crystals were threaded on and twisted together.

The electrical wiring is only an issue when you are not purchasing from a shop. In this case see if the chandelier works and physically look whether the wire is in good condition and has current colours, then have it tested by an electrician. Electricians will not install a chandelier with bad wiring as the danger from electrical fires is not something one would wish to be responsible for. Rewiring is time consuming and a smallish 6 arm chandelier would cost you around £160 so bare this cost in mind.

Over the years I have learned that if an item is cheap it looks cheap, but if it makes you happy then buy it anyway. But do have a good look around first so you can make a  more informed decision.

To start take the instructions out and have a good look at the base diagram, below left.

You can clearly see three bases for arms and numbering for all parts which corresponds to the packages within the box.

I will be doing this installation on a clothes rail, but you can tie the rope directly to the hook as this would eradicate any unnecessary moving.  The less you move the chandelier the better as there is less chance of damage to the crystals.  Please also make sure that the chandelier isn’t in your, your children’s, or your pets way so if you need to leave the room you will not come back to an injury or a broken chandelier.

Unwrap all the packages that are not numbered, these are the central parts and are very obvious as to where they go.  Hang this top central stem on the rope to keep out of harms way.

Take to bottom stem, loosen the grub screw and unscrew the central holding nut to take off the base plate.

The base plate will be completely separate from the plate cover.

Take the packet 4. and unwrap all the arms.  Take the holding nut from the end of the arm, place the arm into the base plate and replace the holding nut.  The arm has a predetermined position so make sure the arm sits flat on the base plate, a little movement left and right should slip the arm into the right place.

Tighten the holding nut only enough to the point where the nut bites so the arm doesn’t move freely, do not tighten any further as this could pull the arm screw out and permanently damage the arm.

Place all 6 arms in the correct position.

Put the flex through the central hole of the base plate and rest the base plate on the base cover.  Connect all 8 blue wires together  and all 8 brown wires together and slip the base plate into the base cover.

Place the central holding nut back on and tighten the lower grub screw.

Put the flex through the central cavity of the top base plate, screw the top base plate on and tighten the grub screw on the central holding nut.

Undo the grub screw on the central holding nut, unscrew and remove the base plate from the base plate cover.

Take arms 2. and place them into the top base plate – do not over tighten the nuts when securing the arms to the base plate.

And as with the previous base plate, put the flex through the centre, rest the base plate on the base plate cover, do the wiring, put the base plate back on the base plate cover and secure in position by placing the central holding nut back on and tighten the lower grub screw.

Take the flex through the centre stem of the top half, screw the top half into the central holding nut and tighten the grub screw.  Please make sure that all the visible thread is within the central holding nut before you tighten the grub screw.

Take the lowest base plate cover off on place the arms 10. into the base plate remembering all the points as per previous bases.

When all arms are done you can start the wiring.

All blues together, all brown together.

Put the base cover back on.

Place the dishes 7. and 6. onto the end base plate.

Put rings x onto the lower and middle arms.

Place trimmings A onto the top and bottom dish.

Place trimmings B onto the inverted top dish onto every other eye so they are above the top arms.

Place crystal chains onto the inverted top dish so the chains hang between the arms.

Place the trimmings D onto the bottom of the chain C.

Place the chains E onto the ends of arms 2. and trimmings F onto the end of chain E.

Place trimmings G onto the glass rings of arms 4.

Place chains H from the splitter on trimming G under the arms 10. to the corresponding splitter on the neighbouring arm.

Place trimmings I onto the ends of arms 4.

Place trimmings J onto the glass rings of arms 10.

Place chains K onto the eyelets on the dish 6.

Hook the ends of chains K into the splitters of trimmings J.

Place trimmings L onto the ends of arms 10.

Place chains M from the splitter of the trimmings L onto the corresponding splitter on the neighbouring arm.

Put all the arm dishes on.

Put the white candle tubes over the lamp holder.

Put the glass skirts over the white tubes of leave these off if you prefer.

Put the light bulbs in.

And now you should check that everything is connected.

I found ball N still in the box so I put it in the central nut 5.

Chain E also needed connecting onto the dishes of arms 4.

Well and then you can sit down and have a look at what you achieved.

If you have any difficulties please give us a call or you can choose to have the chandelier sent assembled which adds the postage cost but reduces your time spent on the chandelier assembly.

I suppose my love for black chandeliers comes from the versatility of the product. Many rooms are incorporating black elements naturally and it should be equally natural to dress the room with a black chandelier. Sadly it is rarely the case. There are various degrees of “blackness” within black chandelier designs and therefore plenty for you to choose from.

My favourite at the moment is chandelier 87003-10/02HK which is a half way chandelier as it is only partially black. This is achieved by laminating – a clear glass is coated by black glass and then cutting into the black layer to reveal the clear glass. This is highly skilled, time consuming procedure which however produces stunning pieces. The bobeches almost resemble a water lily and even the central stem is designed to complement this shape. This chandelier has three trimming variations: all black trimmings,

clear trimmings on dishes but black at the lower section

and all clear trimmings.

Your choice would be influenced by the other features within your design to achieve the right balance of colour and also to make sure that the chandelier isn’t too heavy and doesn’t pull the attention right to the centre.

The next best conservative chandelier option would be clear with black trimmings.

This is a fabulous option as you can choose any chandelier you like and just have the trimmings changed.

Another thing you can do is to buy completely clear chandelier plus extra coloured crystals so you can revert to neutral should you choose to change your colour scheme again.

This black Maria Theresa will not scream at you however it will make a very bold statement. The beautiful chandelier is produced by the top Bohemian manufacturer, which employ only the best of designers. The great feature of this chandelier is the multiplicity of applications. If you have a black marble surface in your kitchen or one with black colouring within the surface then this black chandelier is perfect. However this black chandelier would not be out of place in your:

A) bedroom – say grey and black patterned wallpaper on you accent wall, remaining walls grey and understated, white bedding with grey and black cushions… ,

B) dining rooms – white table with black table ran and black plates , few exceptional dressing pieces strategically scattered around the room in prominent places such as fireplace, window sill or any other dining room furniture.

C) Study – just black desk as a base piece and you can play around with the room in many ways. It is however rather important to select the right period base piece as this determines the tone of the whole room. Buy this I mean that if you chose for instance an art deco desk it would be right to add Georgian complimenting pieces. It is not impossible, but only very few people can pull it off.

The simple black chandelier can simply be placed in any room, perhaps with the exception of bathroom where you need an advice from your electrician with regards of zones.

So if you do incorporate black into your design please think of the black chandelier and give it a chance.

If black chandeliers are to your liking there are more here
more examples.

This is a very simple, but nevertheless beautiful chandelier.  It is suitable for small rooms, corridors, landings… especially in low ceiling areas. The assembly is simple but still if you don’t have any previous experience this may be of some assistance.

Part one is the base. This is to be screwed into the ceiling joist, the electricity cable goes through the hole with the white washer and the earth connects into the earth tab.

Loosen the grub screws and insert the rods into the rod holders.

The tube will protrude about 2mm on the inner side of the tube holders and tighten up the grub screw back up.

The rim has a flat horizontal ridge which the frame is sitting on.

Take the largest crystal piece of the chain in your hand , open the hook slightly and place in the hole.

Close the hook so the crystal chain doesn’t detaches itself from the frame.

When you have done this connect the other end of the crystal chain into the central plate.

Next job is to connect the two together.

Slide the rods inside the basket and rest the frame on the ends of the rods.

These two should fit together snugly, if this is not the case please loosen the grub screw and adjust.

This is detailed picture of how it should sit.

At this point you would be placing your chandelier onto the base plate attached to the ceiling.

The lower screw adjusts so you can regulate the position of your basket.

The electric wiring is not complicated either however has to be done by a COMPETENT person.

This is what you would see in the centre of the basket.

Screw the central nut back on to hold the chandelier in place.

And this is where you have completed the assembly.  Hope you have found these instruction helpful, however if there are any steps you find difficult please do call us for advice.

Here is the chandelier assembly example being discussed in this article.

Despite the lack of variety there are some stunning red chandeliers that would most certainly put the finest of finishing touches into designer rooms.  There are great deal of designs across the variety of rooms that are begging for a red chandelier however the plea for one comes largely unanswered.

There is a hint of hesitance to use red within a family home however this passionate, sensual  colour brings spark and confidence to a room that could other wise be uninteresting.

Very important role is played by a contrast.  The more contrasting your accompanied colour is to your red the more striking the design will feel.  I would however start with selecting a base object.  This should be the one that has the least of selections.  Designing with red this should probably be the chandelier as you will find it easier to find a fabric and an oriental rug that matches the chandelier when selection of red incorporating fabrics greatly  outnumbers selection of red chandeliers.  Once you have your base colour you can see how much contrast you would like within your design.

Red and white is the most striking and will take your attention without any delay. Take for instance a bedroom : white shabby chic furniture, red curtains, some red cushions on white bed linen and of course one red chandelier would make a fantastic design. To make this a busy striking design use floral wall paper, there are plenty of poppy and roses designs. You could also add corona with the outer layer of the same fabric as the curtain and inner layer adding some extra interest. In living room: white settee, red and white pattern curtains with corresponding cushions, red accent wall as dramatic backdrop to an opulent white marble fireplace and few red oriental rugs strategically scattered on the floor. If striking is not what you want then use red and cream. Varying shades of cream will act as the volume control on your i-pod and you can get it right down to mute. To achieve rich rather than striking use red and gold – like in palaces all over the world, you can not go more glamorous than this. The most toned down combination I would say is red and black or red and dark oak. You would get very strong colour design, that would however be completely silent.

However as always beauty is only in the eye of the beholder so please only go for a design you are comfortable with.  This also applies when your room is designed for you, unless you trust your designer completely – and trust me good designers are worth their weight in gold as they do a bit of magic.

If you would like to see and example of a red chandelier that you could acquire have a look here and if this is not quite to your liking please call us.

Chandelier assembly may be daunting at first sight, however it is quite simple and rather rewarding  when you see what you have achieved.

First of all find the central stem and suspend it in a position where you have plenty of room or directly on a chandelier hook.  Make sure that the chandelier is out of reach of children and animals so that neither comes to any harm.

Unscrew the lower most nut and take off the glass dishes and wire cover, placing the parts in a row so you know how to put these back on.

Take the nut of an arm and place into the base plate, put the nut back on and tighten up. Tighten only enough so the arm stays in position.  Over tightening will force the crew out of the arm socket and the arm would need replacing.

Do the same to arm 2…

…3..

and 4.

Do the same to the outer layer.

So all arms are in.

Put all blue wires together and secure in a connector.  Put all brown wires together and secure in a connector.

Put the wire cover and glass dishes back on.

From now on all the chandeliers assembly differs so I will be specific to 10740 8+4.

Put glass rings on outer arms 7. and hang trimmings C on.

Add trimmings B onto the the end of arms.

Hang trimming A onto the top and bottom dish.

Put chain F onto the inverted top dish and hang trimming H onto the end of this chain.

Put chain E onto the ends of inner arms.

Connect the loose chains from the upper splitter from chain F to the splitter of chain E.

Hang chain D from splitter on chain E to the neighbouring splitter on chain E.

Place dishes onto the arms and hang the loose chains from the lower splitter of chain F onto the trimmings eye on the dish.

Place tubes onto the lamp holder.

Place the glass tubes over the candle tubes and the ball G onto the bottom nut and you are ready for the light bulbs and hanging in the final position.

This chandelier is absolutely gorgeous and at first glance doesn’t look too bad as the large crystals were cleaned now and then. But looks can and often are deceptive.

Crystals from the picture above are photographed in detail below.

In this case cleaning in position was not an option due to the type and amount of dirt.  There are several types of dirt, for example near a beach there would be sand, near busy roads in cities you would have greyish exhaust fumes deposits, in this case flies, humidity, temperature and time combination resulted in brown, baked on coat that resembles a wood vanish only is harder to clean.  I had to take all the trimmings of and do my triple soak as the water was way too dirty after the initial soaks to wash the crystals in.  At this point the hard work starts, the scrubbing of every single crystal with a brush as the dirt will not let go without a vigorous help.  I have accumulated number of brushes to cover a wide variety of shapes and sizes of crystals.  After this good rinse in clean water with few drops of vinegar and polishing.  It is important to dry crystals properly as any water droplets will result in streaks.

If you do everything right you will end up with …

… an absolutely Fabulous Chandelier!!!!!
More information on chandelier cleaning here…… more information