This year, trendsetting homeowners decked their halls with sparkly chandeliers and brought home an air of year- round festiveness.
Crystal was a major lighting trend — with designers coveting colored crystals, mixed-color crystals and dramatic black crystals most of all. These dressed-up fixtures enhance the formality of traditional decor and soften the edginess of the polished wood, metal and flat-glass materials popular in contemporary spaces.
Everyone, it seems, has jumped on the glitter and glam bandwagon.
At HW Home (with stores in Denver, Boulder, Broomfield and Greenwood Village), marketing director David Sumrak sees the trend in hand-tinted lead crystals customizable in “dozens of colors.” Buyers can select the number of arms and crystals. One client, for instance, ordered a blood-red chandelier for the library and an ice-blue fixture for the bathroom of a restored home in Denver’s Old South Pearl Historic District. HW Home also carries spectacular Capiz Shell chandeliers from Germany, with shells flattened and worked to form glowing lotus blossoms in white or black.
Leanna Boers of Denver’s Hoff Miller Ltd. favors the Originals 22 collection of “over-the-top crystal that’s contemporary but not too weird.” Originals 22, based in California, has been around for years. People respond to the made-in-America provenance of their fixtures.
Tehmi Marsh of Ebanista Denver is showing “some beautiful natural rock crystal and iron chandeliers,” and Eddy Doumas, owner of Worth Interiors in Palm Beach and Avon, has gone sofar as to design a sparkling custom chandelier for a Rocky Mountain trophy home.
“Chandeliers (with) striking embellishments are hot, hot, hot,” says Boulder interior designer Tamara Paiva. “You can see them in one color or four colors.”
Exclusive glass galleries like Pismo (with locations in Denver, Vail, Beaver Creek and Aspen) show artwork in lighted glass, with Dale Chihuly chandeliers starting at about $165,000. Pismo also carries less pricy art lighting.
The Danish-born artist Ulla Darni creates colorful fine-art glass fixtures. Hand-painted floral and abstract styles in her Multiple Originals group start at about $3,000 at Pismo.
“People might think that $3,000 is high,” says store owner Sandy Sardella. “But it’s not much more than a mass-produced, high-end chandelier from a lighting store.”
Julie Martin, owner of Lumenaria, a lighting showroom in Longmont, finds customers are seeking “colored glass and colored crystal” fixtures at various prices. Even Seagull Lighting, whose collection is moderately priced and conservative, is looking at “a little crystal.”
“People are desirous of clean, simple lines,” says Eric Borden with Seagull Lighting, “but with a little sizzle.”
How to Install a Chandelier
EQUIPMENT
Wire cutter, screwdriver, electrical tape and any pieces that came with the chandelier.
STEPS
Shut off power to the electrical box at the breaker panel or fuse box.
Remove the existing fixture but leave the electricity-supply wires in the outlet box in the ceiling.
Install the proper support system — or call a professional if your chandelier exceeds the 50-pound maximum load rating for standard electrical boxes.
Secure the bell of the chandelier to the support bracket.
Connect the supply wires in the ceiling box to the fixture wires — white to white and black to black, following the manufacturer’s wiring diagram and instructions. Also, be sure to connect the ground wire as directed. Make sure that the connections are secure, and then screw on the wire nuts.
Attach chandelier via the support bracket. Hang crystals or other ornamentation on the chandelier. Screw in lightbulbs of proper wattage. Turn the electricity back on.
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