The convenience of online shopping sometimes makes it possible for one to purchase an item for which they have no immediate need. The thought of a candelier (a chandelier using candles rather than electric bulbs) has always appealed to me. When I found one online it was purchased with the thought that a use for it would develop over time. Until then, it remained in the box behind a door in the studio.
As a gift to myself I bought Tori Mellott’s book, Southern Interiors: A Celebration of Personal Style. It’s a fabulous book and you will read more about the book and the topic of personal style in interior design in a later post. In the section featuring interior designer Chelsea Handegan and her home in Charleston, South Carolina this photo caught my attention. This enchanting room belongs to her young daughter, Hattie and includes an antique French daybed and an antique Swedish chandelier. To my eye, there are candles in the chandelier.
The design of the antique Swedish chandelier with its wide band and candle holders radiating from it vaguely reminded me of my black wrought iron candelier. Here it is resting on a painting tarp.
First, a coat of Sherwin Williams Van Dyke Brown over the entire surface.
Next, a stiff brush lightly dipped in Glorious Gold paint and tapped over the surface of the chain and the votive holders emanating from the center band. The gold on top of the brown has a softness to it which is quite appealing.
As the painting was in progress it was easy to imagine the candelier, with beeswax tea lights in the glass votives, hanging from an old oak tree providing flickering candlelight over our table and chairs. We could have dinner there by candlelight on a cool evening. Someone who has a strong background in safety and engineering thought differently. There were questions about the sensibility of lighting candles hanging from a tree in the Hill Country during an extended period of drought. Convinced, I wondered aloud, then how might we use it. After some thought he suggested we might hang it from a chandelier. The one in the library was the only one it could hang from and actually, the perfect solution!!
The look of the two fixtures together was fascinating to me, as if someone had invented a new lighting device. Perhaps it would be appreciated by Sir Isaac Newton, an important contributor to scientific theory during the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment and author of a study of light published in 1704 and titled Opticks.
It seemed to me it would be appropriate for both fixtures to be painted in the same way. After some discussion we came to the conclusion we should take down the chandelier and paint it Van Dyke brown and gold to match the candelier.
At the time, my husband was installing new igniters in the oven so we set the chandelier and paint on the kitchen island. It was fun to talk together as we worked.
The chandelier and candelier together are a unique and personal design statement in a room with many of our beloved books and a table topped with antique marble. It was difficult to get a photo showing them alone, but these pictures give you an idea of the look of the soft application of the gold on top of the brown. These colors look better against the lightness of the Gustavian framed botanicals.
The library is open to our bedroom. Now, in October, it is dark when we get up. The soft light of the beeswax tea lights flickering in the candelier with our coffee and cups on a tray below, and maybe some Mozart playing in the background is such a lovely way to begin the day together! Perhaps you have something you can adapt to use in a new and unusual way!
