Where to buy Sputnik chandelier lights made today — Practical Props

Come on, who doesn’t want to own a Sputnik chandelier? It’s an icon of mid century lighting, and to find one vintage would surely be exciting. But sometimes, you don’t want to wait forever for a vintage Sputnik to orbit into your hot little hands. Where to buy a Sputnik light made new today, at a relatively reasonable price? Well, two of our readers — Doug and Nancy — turned us on to Practical Props, located in North Hollywood, California. Not only does Practical Props design and manufacture their own Sputnik lights, but they also are a great one-stop shopping place — online or in the store — to find a variety of other classic, reproduction mid century lighting made today.

Practical Props was kind enough to provide some history and information about the company:

Practical Props was started in 1991 by Ian Hardy, who saw a niche market in lighting rentals and sales to the Studios here in LA, after working behind the scene in the industry for a few years. Practical Props offered rentals as well as retail from the start. Initially both divisions were under one roof, but split into two locations in 2005 as the business grew too large for the original location. Our rental division, at 11754 Vose Street in North Hollywood, now features approximately 9,000 square feet of mainly vintage lighting.

The retail store, located at 11010 Magnolia Blvd. in North Hollywood, features approximately 3,000 square feet of new, used, and vintage lighting. Mainly due to our great selection of vintage and retro lighting, as well as our reasonable pricing, the store is a popular retail venue for set designers, interior designers, people remodeling and restoring homes, restaurant and store owners, and the general public alike. We are a destination store, but also get customers that pass us on the street.

A large part of our business is custom lighting. We have supplied custom lighting to many retail stores, restaurants, residences, as well as TV and film productions. A majority of our fixtures are made in house, though we out-source to other companies in California, with some components manufactured off-shore.

At any given time we provide lighting to 40-50 TV and film productions. Here are a few:

TV:
Sons of Anarchy, Mike and Molly, CSI, Parks and Recreation, Community, House, Criminal Minds, Anger Management, Mad Men, 90210, Modern Family, Vegas, Pretty Liars, Army Wives…

Film:
Argo, The Artist, X Men, The Fast and the Furious, Transformers, J. Edgar, Poseidon, Rock Star, The Green Mile, Benjamin Buttons, Dukes of Hazzard, Moneyball, Jersey Boys…

Practical Props’ Sputnik chandeliers come in several configurations, five finishes and range in price from $295 – $1,200 depending on size. There are even a few styles of sputnik wall sconces exclusively designed by Practical Props.

In addition to Sputnik lights and cone wall sconces, Practical Props also sells globe lights, which are available in diameters of 10″ to 20″. And, they stock Remcraft’s Retro line of wall sconces.

If you are visiting Los Angeles or live nearby, it is surely worth a trip to ogle the goodies.  However, if you are like me and live too far away, you are in luck: Many of their light fixtures — including the hot-to-trot Sputniks — can be ordered through the website.