The Much Anticipated Living Room Sconces

I have been on a quest for living room sconces for over a year and a half.  I share my story to "Keep It Real" about improvements to your home. Not all projects are a weekend success or an instant fix. I struggle with decisions just like you. And taking the time to make the right choice for your home and your family can be so rewarding that it is worth the time and effort. Well, mostly.  Effort yes; time... not so much.

It all began when we bought our Bethesda home almost two years ago. We loved everything about it, except the wood thing over our massive living room fireplace. I am sure it was treasured over the years by previous owners and I respected its unique nature. It just was not for my family. So yes, we removed it. To be more accurate, at the end of September 2011, I paid my friend Pieter to take it all down including the mantel. Much to our surprise, behind that wooden facade was an archeological find of fireplace embellishments over the decades. We found a slip of paper dated 1951 back there, plus dubious wiring faintly visible on the photo on the right. And yes, those little metal electrical covers that promised of lighting to come.

Jump ahead to late January 2012 to discover minor progress on the lighting front. We hired an electrician to confirm and modernize the connection between the wires behind those plates and a switch on the wall by the front door.  As a temporary solution, they crudely though safely attached two mismatched light bulbs to the wires, to validate electrical success. Running in parallel to our sconce quest was the restoration of the plaster. We'll call this phase the retro industrial look. Visitors politely tried to ignore it.  But by mid-spring 2012, our plaster guy had applied 13 layers over 6 or 7 visits to reach the point where we were ready for sconce selection and painting.

I created a Pinterest board for living room sconce ideas. Friends weighed in. I vacillated between much bling, subtle oil rubbed bronze, antiqued but new fixtures, custom-made from New York City, and many in between. I narrowed in on a vintage look, to keep with the style of our 1938 Tudor. A random postcard from Artisan Lamp Company in Cleveland Park, Washington, DC, led me to dropping by their shop one evening in February 2013; yes that much time had passed. I found some I liked. I mentioned them to my loving spouse. He wondered why I had not bought them. Next time I could get there was April 4, 2013. I found an American vintage pair from the 1920s or 1930s with crystal and brass. And it only took me 8 days to get an electrician here to install them on a dimmer switch. Tah dah!  I present to you the final product. Now we just need a mantel.