Mr. GAIN spent his high school years in his family’s lamp and antique shop, so we’re kind of picky about lighting. We have to customize everything (it’s in his blood to compulsively touch everything instead of leaving it as it was). After a few failed attempts to find a mutually acceptable chandelier, I bought this one on overstock.com without consulting him. And he likes it.
It was definitely not a one-person job. And you needed a level, which was omitted from the instructions. I bought 60W CFLs for it. We were both very concerned about getting enough light from this fixture. Our old one also used five lightbulbs, and was quite dim. The new one also uses five of the same bulbs, but is not dim. The CFL’s give a very cool light, which isn’t my favorite for this space, but we have MUCH more light than we did before. Darker paint, but brighter room. Go figure.
We stripped it down to the basics —
We left out the flowers and crystals that hang from them. The flowers are now residing on the shelf in the niche; the crystals never made it out of the package.
Here is the old light, which can be seen in many houses. It dated the room, in a bad way.
Except for the two-person installation, this was an easy swap. I recommend swapping lighting fixtures for a quick update.