Some nice vintage lighting here, with some ideas for every room. The first two fixtures are mint-in-box Danish Modern lights from Liz’s Antique Hardware. Notice the 1940s to mid-50s bathroom light with swans and their babes, a special find for just the right bathroom. And, I adore the dining room light with the avocado shades. Vintage lighting is da bomb (but remember to get the wiring checked out to be safe.)
Let there be (mid-century) light
Posted by: • December 27, 2009
Mid century lighting at Amy’s replicated with Rejuvenation’s Jantzen light 
Hannah’s 1960s grape cluster swag light kit & a peek inside her mid century modest house 
Become a fan
Those are all great! The ufo one is my fave. The last one, the rectangular bath one, we have one from my grandparents, it’s in the garage right now, but from what I remember it has cool designs on it with sparkles or frost, it’s so retro looking, very 50s, we hope to be able to put it in our bathroom.
I gotta say, I LOVE the pull-downs! We had a flat-out awesome, totally cherry BIG one that I got for 40 bucks, but we ended up e-baying it last year. I nearly wept! Sigh.
But…about the wiring? A lot of the pull-downs I see won’t work right because the wire has taken quite a ‘set’ around the retractor reel in the ‘egg’ part. If you hack and poke at the wire in question, you’ll find out why: the wire insulation is cloth over rubber…and I think it’s a high content of natural rubber, maybe, because it gets dried out, cracky, and has indeed lost it’s flex. Not really good.
…Personally I want a CHROME pull-down UFO for the dinette in the worst way, but have yet to find one…HAVING one chromed is a $pendy thing, and I’ll have to wait for the AtomicDreamHouse to see if I really need one that bad!
Dave
Hey, dave. Good try. I edited out your DIY advice – but left the comment overall as a reminder to readers: When you get a vintage light be sure to have it checked out by a professional. I have also been told that the pull-down lights are no longer to code. All the more reason consult with pro’s to ensure the electrical safety of yours.
Ooops…What I was meaning to say was that I don’t personally trust the wiring on ANY of the vintage pulldowns I’ve seen a great deal. Please remember this comes from one who repairs the aftereffects of electrical “smokeshows” on a fairly regular basis!
That said, I love the pull-downs madly! When I was a kid we had not one but two (one in the dining room, one in the breakfast nook). Over time, both of them were crapcanned because try as might my granddad couldn’t find an appropriate new wire that would look decent and work properly. The one in the dining room was SO cool…I have never seen another like it. A shame.
My supervisor at work ran a large commercial lighting house until a couple years ago. They also did repair and restoration work…turns out he used to personally re-cord these things (and fix NuTone door chimes, too!). We were talking about these lights about a year ago and he tells me that the appropriate cord still exists and is (obscure or not) apparently still available. While he couldn’t remember the manufacturer or model type of it, he suggested a bit of time with lighting distributors in larger cities or on the net would probably lead to success. I’m not advocating a person rewire their own unless they are reasonably confident and competent, but coming up with the appropriate materials is half the battle and a DIY-er could certainly do that much if the professional of choice can’t put the time into looking or if the egghunt time would make the restoration cost-prohibative.
I’ll find out the name of Michael’s old employer if I can and write in with it as a source.
Dave
Thanks, dave, it will be great to have that resource under our belt to share with the pro’s who do our rewiring!