Light Show

OK, I've spent several hours looking through my clips and magazine tears of lighting fixtures. I don't know what I expected, but picking the lighting fixtures has been really complicated. First, there are many more lights that you think there are in a house. Second, I'm walking that fine line of having some variety in the house without it looking like a circus.

I started with bronze hardware and wall sconces for the first floor living/dining room. I've been keeping an eye on the Julian sconce in the Pottery Barn catalog for a year or more—and it's now on sale! I like its clean lines, metal shade, and pull chain, which will allow me to control the lights individually around the room. I ordered 5 a couple of weeks ago, and they're perfect.

Now, I've got only got 20 more to select! Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and, believe it or not, Shades of Light have a lot of fixtures I like, but a company called Visual Comfort (its retail division is Circa Lighting) makes some of the most beautiful retro fixtures I've ever seen. I've got to check them out before I make any more lighting decisions inside.

Lighting is like jewelry on the architecture. With my new construction, I'm counting on the lighting to give the house an instant patina or vintage look. I'm one of those people who have to at least thumb through every catalog that comes in the mail, and thankfully I did. I never would have guessed that a catalog called Shades of Light would have much of anything of interest to me, but I found the perfect fixtures for my porch. I'm ordering the small bronze outdoor hurricane lanterns (a pair for the front door and a single for the back door) plus a hanging Moravian Star light for the side porch.