Antique Lamp

I really love my house. It's darling and cozy, and feels like a member of the family. But it has its drawbacks, and one of them is the perpetual dimness in the main rooms. The windows are small, tree-covered and face north and east. Until tonight, the cave-like feeling got even worse at night, as the main room had no overhead light. For a long time, we set a lamp right  there on the table, but the cord got in the way, and the shade blocked our view of each other.

Such was the problem. 

Today, I got my DIY on, and crafted a solution.

Years ago, I'd bought a lovely stained-glass lampshade at a thrift store for a little too much money, just because I loved it.  It looked antique and homemade, and I knew I wanted it in my house.  It had no light socket; it was just the shade. It sat in our storage room gathering dust until I haphazardly affixed it to one of the dangling bare bulbs in the basement where it hung, heavy and awkward, waiting to bump me in the head whenever I tried to walk through to my sewing room.

This morning, I brought it upstairs, and Curly lovingly dusted it off for me. When Hubby came home from work, we drove to several hardware stores in search of lamp parts and electrical cord.

You see, in one of my past lives, I worked in a lighting store doing lamp repair, among other things. Anyway, knowing how to wire lamps and light fixtures myself comes in handy, although it usually makes employees at the hardware store a little nervous.

I wired in a nice, white cord, affixed a nice, white chain, and installed an in-line switch low enough for little people to reach. I drilled holes through the lath-and-plaster ceiling, and installed hooks with toggles, to strongly anchor the heavy glass shade.  Then, I hung my beautiful lamp above the table, where it anoints our once-dark room with mellow, stained-glass yumminess.  Aaaahhhh, perfect.