Light Fixture Fetish, Part 3

Last week, Ted and I took a (slightly) impromptu road trip to Charleston and Savannah. That's right, we drove all the way from Chicago to South Carolina/Georgia and back in six days. That meant several days in the car, but we did break it up with a few well-chosen detours to stretch our legs. One of our favorites was in Atlanta, where we stayed just long enough to grab breakfast and tour the Atlanta Fox Theatre before heading back out on the highway.

Now, the two of us are huge, I mean HUGE fans of 1920s era movie palaces. We're passionate advocates for Chicago's Uptown Theatre, and would love to see that one restored. And there are few movie palaces out there that have been restored to the level of detail as Atlanta's Fox. It's what every restoration effort should be.

The Fox was built at a time when Tutmania and a fascination with Moorish art was sweeping the country. So much of the decor reflects Egyptian themes. It's just beautiful. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the auditorium while we were there, due to copyright restrictions for the set of the current show, so I had to satisfy myself with snapping photos of the elaborate--and completely original--sconces and lights in the ballrooms and other areas of the theatre. So, if you'd like to see more, definitely visit the Fox's Web site.

We're slowly working out how much of a 1920s Egyptian theme we want to pull off for the living room. It's easy to go over the top. These light fixtures definitely serve as inspiration!

Light Fixture Fetish, Part 2 — Anyone want a set of sconces?

As much as I've tried, I don't like the sconces we have in the bathroom. Like 95% of the fixtures that were still in place when we moved in, they're probably original to the house. However, even if I get the paint stripped off them, I just don't think they'll wow me. Nothing wrong with them, they just don't fit our vision for the bathroom and we'll be going with a different, although still vintage, pair.

Here is one in place beside the half-stripped medicine cabinet.

And so, after a fair bit of searching, we came across this vintage pair of porcelain bathroom sconces in excellent condition. They still have the porcelain pulls and three-prong grounded receptacles. (I didn't know it, but the earliest such receptacles date to the 1920s.) We won't use these receptacles, but they do look neat.

Don't worry, I won't throw out the old sconces, because they are vintage and worth saving. Like I said, they do need to be stripped. Also, one is missing its switch (easily remedied) and both need to be rewired, but if there are any among you who would like to give them a new home, let me know. We'll be rewiring the bathroom circuit in the next month, and installing the porcelain sconces then. We'll store the old set until finding someone to take them off our hands.

So, if you'd like the pair of sconces with the shades, just drop me a note in the comments or e-mail me at editor(a)compassrose.com with your contact info.

The Original Patent Drawings for Our Chandelier

Remember that super-gorgeous vintage light fixture we bought a while back, which Ted rewired and restored for our dining room?


Well, I used Google Patents to see if I could find out any more information on it, and while I didn't come up with an exact match, I did find the drawings for two fixtures from the same series. Combine a few elements from each—the light brackets from image one; body, canopy and everything else from image two—and you have ours.


So, it looks like it was meant to have the round bulbs. The designs were registered in 1929, roughly the same year as our house. I found a design patent for part of our matching sconces, as well.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with this Google tool; you can search by manufacturer name, designer name, patent number, etc. When I get the chance, I'll pull some of our other vintage fixtures off the walls to check the patent numbers and see what I can discover about them.

I think I'll print up these images and frame them to hang in the dining room. They're just that pretty.

Need Help Identifying Light Fixtures. Deco? Mid-Century? Home Depot Special?

We had to fix a leaky shower head in the tenants' unit this week, so while we were up there I took a few more pictures of some of the light fixtures that are in place. Soon as we can coordinate with the tenants, we'll start swapping some of these out with the fixtures I picked up on eBay.

These candle sconces we're keeping:

Fixture A.

There are four of them total upstairs, and they just need to be stripped of the gawd-awful paint and rewired. These are no doubt original to the house, circa 1920s.

But this one I'm not sure:

Fixture B.

It's currently in the dining room and is much too small for the space. The vintage one we're replacing it with can be seen here. Although not my particular style, this floral number is kinda quaint. I was thinking 1930s, based on some I've seen on eBay. Does anyone else recognize the style? Rather than rehome it, I might put it in another one of the bedrooms, which is currently lit with bare bulbs.

What about this one?

Fixture C.

It's a pull cord, and the shade is similar to many I've seen on eBay reputedly from the 1920s. Thoughts? (It's being replaced with this one from the 1930s.) I'm not sure yet if we'll be rehoming this one or not. I'm not overly fond of it, and can't think of a place for it. But it's in great shape.

And finally, there is this:

Fixture D.

It's also on a pull cord. Various eBay sellers are calling similar ones a) deco, b) mid-century modern, c) vintage, d) antique, e) used. I suspect it's fairly recent. I don't have a replacement for it yet, so more than likely it will stay for the time being.

Free Vintage Chandelier to a Good Home

Well, we've taken down the dining room chandelier and had hoped to get the new slip shade one in place, but a piece broke in shipping and we're still dealing with FedEx and the eBay seller about the credit. Can't hang anything up or even try to assemble it fully until FedEx can get over here and inspect the packaging.

Here's the old one:

We originally thought the chandelier was a later addition to the house, but after doing a bit of online research and trolling through the auctions, it looks like it might have been original. Several sellers had indicated similar ones as coming from the 1920s.

Anyway, if you want it for your house, it's yours. It does have the canopy, which I managed to clip off in my picture. It will need to be rewired, as it still has the original cloth cord, which is in rough shape. Also, one shade is slightly larger than the others. It's a decent chandelier, just not our style, so we're replacing it with another period light.

If you're interested in the chandelier, it's free, you just have to come get it. Drop me an e-mail at blog(a)compassrose.com
We also have this light fixture, which is probably also original to The Box House:

The body is actually some sort of plastic. I knocked off most of the dust, and discovered it's really quite a pretty color. It, too, is free to a good home. Just drop me an e-mail.

We may even throw a kitten in with the deal.* Naughty kittens snuck into Mom's sewing room yesterday and discovered that the Garfield quilt she was working on--which she spent a very long time adjusting to just the right tension for quilting--makes an excellent hammock.

Needless to say, Mom was not pleased.

*Just kidding, you can't have our naughty kittens.

Art Deco Lights for the Pantry and the Front Entryway, and a New To Do List for the Tenant Unit

I swear, these are the last ones... Honest.

Well, unless you're going to get all technical on me and count this one, too.


The top pair of starry lights came from a deco-era theatre in Chicago that was torn down. They will light the pantry of each unit at The Box House. At present, there is just a bare bulb in each.

The bottom light, which I mentioned a few days ago that I was drooling over, is going to go in the tenants' unit. The current tenants are closing on their house in May, so we're looking to rent the unit out starting June 1st. It looks like we'll be able to get some work done on the unit before the next set of tenants move in. Our short list includes:

• Rewiring the light in the stairwell outside their unit
• Rewiring the dining room and living room
  
• Replacing the light in the entryway
• Replacing the light in the dining room
• Replacing the light in the pantry
• Adding a fan light in the living room
• Painting (using Venetian Plaster) the dining room, entryway, and living room. I think we're going to use a seafoam in the dining room, a pale aqua in the living room, and a creamy color in the entryway
• Adding push button switches to some of the rooms
• Stripping the sconce lights in two of the bedrooms of the layers of white paint

We've been asked why we're putting such effort into a rental unit. I guess there are a couple of reasons.

For one, The Box House is a two-flat that we live in. It's our home as well as an investment property. We'd like to upgrade and restore both units along the same lines. A nicer unit will attract good tenants, ones we hope will have a similar appreciation for vintage detail. Sharing a two-flat with another family is quite different than living in an apartment building. It's a more intimate relationship, because you always run into them on the stairway or in the laundry room. We want to attract a tenant who appreciates the building in the same way that we do. It takes some effort to find such people, but this will be our fifth go-around as landlords (twice for the condo, once for Mom's house, and this will be our second time at The Box House) and we (think we) have a good sense of who will make a good tenant.

Second, improving, upgrading, and restoring the unit upstairs will only add value to our home.

And finally, when the other properties sell, when the basement here is finished into a "third unit," and when we find ourselves in between occupancies, Ted and I may move to the upstairs unit. It was the original plan, before everything got modified. So the changes we make I'll eventually get to appreciate on a day to day basis--even if it's four or five years down the road.

Custard Shade Art Deco Chandelier for the Tenants' Unit, and a Plea for Input

Did I mention that our dream tenants have decided to get their own place? I can't blame them--now's the time to buy if you can--but they're wonderful, wonderful neighbors and I'm really going to miss them. Their lease is up this summer.

We rented the unit out to them just a few months after we moved into The Box House ourselves. We had made some minor repairs to the unit at the time, but knew there was a list of things we wanted to one day accomplish to make the unit even nicer. So we're looking at this in a positive light, and will take the time to make some additional improvements.

So, my theory is that replacing some of the light fixtures in the tenants' unit will help us get a higher rent. (In truth, I just get to indulge my light fixture fetish and hunt through eBay, online merchants, and the local shops to find one-of-a-kind vintage pieces.) There are two and possibly three fixtures I definitely want to replace before the next set of tenants--whoever they may be--moves in. The dining room and entryway have really, really cheap looking lights. The living room ceiling doesn't have a ceiling fixture at all; at the moment, I can't remember if there is an electric box in the ceiling for one or not, like there is downstairs. At a minimum, we want to replace the two and if possible, put a ceiling fan in the living room.

This is what Ted found on eBay for the dining room (these are the seller's pictures):

It's not as fancy as some of the lights we've been looking at, but it's also not as expensive. We negotiated with this seller, and got it for a very, very reasonable price. It'll arrive as soon as I get around to paying for it.

Because it's going into the tenants' unit, we wanted something more practical and sturdier than the more fanciful slip shade chandeliers, like the one we got for our unit downstairs. (Which, by the way, arrived by FedEx today and, although it was very well packed, has a broken arm. *Sob* I think we can fix it, but more on that tomorrow.)

Now I have my eye on this one for the entryway. It, too, is reasonably priced. It's circa early 1930s and is currently located in Europe. I haven't placed a bid on it yet, but I'm very tempted.

What do y'all think? Would these lights make you say "wow" when you walked in, and want to rent the place? Would they distract you from the fact that the kitchen doesn't have a dishwasher, and won't until we get the chance (*cough* funds) to redo the kitchens in both units? Do lights matter as much as I think they do?

I don't have pictures of the light fixtures currently in place up there. But trust me, they're fug, and do the unit no favors.

Cleaning Our Antique Light Fixture, Pulling More Wire, and Another Conduit Mystery

Well, much to my disappointment, the antique light fixtures we won on eBay still haven't arrived at our door. Granted, one of them I paid for just last week, but it's been a few weeks since we sent payment for the other. What's that seller's excuse? Grrr. I want to get these installed soon, because my cousin is coming in town in a few weeks and she hasn't seen the place yet. I want to distract her from the disastrous bathroom and the super outdated kitchen with pretty, sparkly lights.

Well, I can't really complain too much. We still have to finish pulling new wire through the conduit before the lights can be installed, anyway. So that's what Ted and I did today. With a little help--as always--from Seamus.

I think I've gotten over my fear of rewiring; I'm no longer hyperventilating and thinking "OMG, I'm working with electricity!" Because really, I'm not. I'm just the Girl Friday, the one that chants "heave, ho!" and feeds the wires into the wall. Ted is the one who knows what he's doing and can hook everything back up again. Of course, I nag him to test and test and test the lines again to make sure they're not live. But that's me; I worry cuz I care. And because he humors me, he tests them again in my presence, even though he's already tested them several times and maps everything he discovers in our "Box House Book."

So, pulling old wires and replacing them with new has become fairly routine. We'll be ready to install the dining room chandelier and the front hall light when and if they ever get here.

And while we're at it, we're replacing all the cloth wiring along that circuit. That includes the wire leading up to the light fixture in the front stairwell, the stairwell that leads to both the front door of our unit and the tenants' door upstairs.

The stairwell is lit by two gorgeous matching light fixtures, one on each level, that are probably original to the house. Seriously, the lights are what really sold me on The Box House. I walked through the door and fell in love, just like that. Here's one of them:

But look closer; some moron in the past painted the ceiling without bothering to either tape up the canopy piece or loosen the screw to drop it enough to paint under it. What a mess. (Click on the picture to enlarge and truly understand my annoyance.)

I was really nervous to try to remove this paint, because I was terrified I'd also remove the gold paint underneath. The lamp is some kind of pot metal with a red, green and gold polychrome paint job. What I finally did was to get a shallow bowl and fill it with an inch of warm, sudsy water--I just used dish soap. Then I let the canopy soak in the water for fifteen minutes or so. This seemed to soften the paint enough that I could remove it with my fingernail. It was tedious, and underneath the splashed on white latex was a layer of slopped over taupe-colored enamel--the dreaded enamel that seems to cover the wood trim in the bedrooms, and is nearly impervious to strippers. Luckily, for once, it didn't seem to adhere to this particular surface. I was able to scrape it off with my fingernail as well. Voila!

I don't think these lights have been taken down in decades; here's what it looked like when I started to wipe away the dust with a damp cloth:
Granted, some of that is sawdust from when we refinished the stairs--that stuff gets everywhere.

I had decided not to take the panels out to clean the glass. Each is held in place by a foldover metal tab, and I did not want to risk bending the old metal in case it snapped. So I used a damp sponge and warm, sudsy water to gently wipe the whole lamp down. To get the moisture out from behind the metal grill work when I was done, I used a can of compressed air to blow it out. All in all, it worked very well. It's possible to see more detail on the surface now, and I'll take another picture when I get the light back in place.

We did encounter another mystery while pulling the wire. We thought it would be a straight shot from the dining room ceiling fixture to the ceiling box in the living room, a distance of maybe 20 feet max. Afterall, there are no other fixtures that it could be powering. However, the wire we pulled out was more than three times that length. So the conduit was not straight, and was traveling off somewhere else, to power what, we're not entirely sure yet.

We first double-checked the remaining wall outlets in the living room, including the one in the floor that powers our old electric fireplace. No luck. None of those wires were connected.

So now, our best guess is that there's another electric box or two hidden behind the plaster. The most likely scenerio, since the conduit seems to be heading in that general direction, is that there were two sconces above the fireplace, in typical bungalow fashion. And just as we found a dip in the plaster where there was once a lightswitch, careful inspection above the fireplace shows a few dips in the plaster that might have been the location of sconces.

Arrgh, I neglected to take another picture of the fireplace to show y'all, and the only one I seem to be able to find on the hard drive is this one from Christmas. It'll have to do. In the space on either side of the mirror there is a suspicious swirl of plaster, no doubt covering up newspaper-stuffed electric boxes.

We need to do some investigation as we did before, possibly some test drilling to find the boxes, but I'm so excited at the thought that we might have discovered another vintage detail buried by a previous owner.