A home is not complete without complimenting lighting. The correct lighting can transmit a whole mood of an area. An area can feel welcoming, clean, and warm. Choosing the right kind of lighting can be very important.

Picking out lights for the home is just as essential as choosing the color scheme and furniture. Make sure what you choose matches your current home decor. Matching the right light to your home decor can have stunning results. To create beautiful results, you have many options. It may seem overwhelming at first, but embrace the variety of items you have to choose from. From old-fashioned chandeliers, to modern recessed lighting, you have many choices you can make.

While lights were once about function, they are now more about style and aesthetics. Homeowners want to express themselves through their home decorating style, and lighting is just one more way they can do that. Beautiful pendant lighting can add personality to any home!

A wildly popular choice is pendant lighting. Pendant lighting gives the room a focus and accents other items inside the home. Even the lights themselves can be a focus. Pendant lighting can be used on the interior to highlight just about anything, such as pictures, sculptures, and focal points of the room.

What is best about pendant lighting is that it is affordable ceiling light, that is a simple modification of a chandelier. They are simple in design, and do not have any other hanging components. A shade can even be added to a pendant light, or it can just hang by itself. Pendant lighting can come in many different sizes, so homeowners can have options, and they can even choose the shape. Pendant lighting is also easy to install. A hole does not need to be created in the wall, so installation is easier than most lighting. With affordable pricing and easy installation, your home can look wonderful in a short amount of time.

The beauty of pendant lighting will impress your guests, and add personality to your home. Pendant lighting can illuminate your special items and highlight your decor. But do not stop with just one pendant light; hang several of them together to create a beautiful effect! Pendant lighting allows the homeowner to get creative. So, when choosing lighting for your next home decor project, consider pendant lighting and the inviting feeling it can create.

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Between all the choices that are available to illuminate your home, sconce lighting is one of the best ways to achieve it. Wall sconce lighting can add a unique glow to any room in your dwelling. There are all sorts that are out there in the market. But rest assured that there is a sconce that ought to compliment the distinctive layout and look of every single room in your dwelling. Here are a couple design tips.

A good place to use sconce lighting is right beside your bed. Create a stylish decor by putting up a sconce above each of your bedstands, on both sides of the bed.

Another good spot to install wall sconces is your bathroom. Place a sconce squarely on both sides of the mirror, above the wash basin. Alternatively if room doesn’t allow it, you could place them directly onto the mirror, maybe one on each of the lower or upper corners. The aesthetics of your bathroom will look their best if you use candles.

Don’t forget the living room. This is one area that you certainly should to install sconce lighting in. If you have a fireplace, position a sconce near each of the two upper corners, or even halfway down each side. This will make for a very romantic setting. What if you don’t own a fireplace? Try the same setup with your TV stand. One place in your living room which you should consider placing wall sconces is your doorway. Imagine how welcome your visitors will feel when they walk through.

Finally, you might want to place some wall sconces in your dining room. For smaller dining areas, position a sconce high and center on the wall closest to the dinner table. For large dining areas, place a sconce on more than one wall. Alternatively, put up two or three evenly on the one wall closest to your dinner table above head level.

I have been writing articles for several years. Other recent articles of mine are about dryer lint brush products.

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There are many ways of understanding the culture and history of civilizations – literary sources, archaeological remains, art, architecture etc, and each type can offer us different aspects of their lives. In this article, I wish to look at the history and significance of women’s lamps and torches from the Late Archaic and Classical periods of ancient Greece to determine what information they may offer us.

Let us determine, first of all, when these periods took place and what we will be discussing. 650 – 480 BCE is the generally accepted period of Archaic Greece, and the Classical period c. 500 – 323 BCE. For this article, I will be examining the images of Athenian women and their activities that were illuminated by lamps and torches, and whether a different type of lighting device can offer us other aspects of Athenian women’s’ lives.

Aristophanes claims that the lamps is ‘the all-seeing witness of the domestic female world’ (, p.19) in the prologue of the Ecclesiazousai. The lamp reflects the female aspect of domestic life in the ancient Greek world, whereas torches reflect the male features of the house. We can see the social representations of this in vase paintings – in one Athenian vase the female holds a lamp, the male a torch. Torches represented the outside ‘brighter’ world of men, lamps the ‘darker’ inside wide of women. Due to the theory that women were restricted to the gynaikeion, thought to be on the upper floor, and since respectable women were mainly confined to their houses, natural light would have been very poor. Lamps would have been necessary for women’s daily activities. So it could be suggested that lamps and torches could have represented the male and female aspects of the domestic household, or as a symbol of their confined domestic world as a maiden or mother, and their attachment to the oikos of their father or husband.

In contrast to the respectable woman’s confinement to her home, lamps in scenes depicting hetairai (prostitutes or professional female entertainers) represent the luxury of her environment. Scenes show bronze lamps instead of the clay lamps, as Late Archaic vase painters introduced bronze lamps on stands in erotic scenes of different sorts. The involvement of lamps and lovers is clearly expressed by Aristophanes in Ecclesiazousai, where the lamp is a silent witness of female bodies while involved in intercourse (, p.26). This is an especially enlightening reference to the generally unspoken responsibilities of legitimate Athenian wives.

We can also see the lamp becoming a personified god. One example of this is the 3rd century BCE epigram by Asclepiades. Herakleia had sworn before the lamp of her love for her lover. However, she broke her oath and having sworn it three times, her lover asks the lamp, as a personified god, to seek revenge by refusing to light Herakleia’s chamber when she meets her new lover. In this context, it could also be a way for lovers to recall memories of their time together.

The study of lighting devices within Athenian women’s lives has shown that artificial light was detrimental both day and night. Whether a ‘respectable’ or ‘non-respectable’ woman, lamps and torches symbolised characteristics of their private and public lives and will continue to offer us great insight into the world of Athenian women. 

Bibliography:

Parisinou, Eva (2000) ‘Lighting’ the World of Women: Lamps and Torches in the Hands of Women in the Late Archaic and Classical Periods, Greece & Rome, Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association.

Replacing dated wall sconces has an immediate impact and is a very cost effective way to remodel a room. You don’t need to hire an electrician for this kind of project. Electricity has to be respected but not feared. These steps will make the process safe and simple for you to do.

Common electrical wiring for modern houses is done with both two and three wire cables which have a copper grounding wire. The difference is that three wire cables are used for three-way and four-way switches. Two wire cables have a black, white and a bare ground wire. Three wire cables have black, white, red and a bare ground wire. Typically, the black and red wires are hot, white is neutral and the ground wire is exposed copper.

Turn off the power at the breaker box. Loosen the screws holding the plate of your light fixture to the wall. Gently let the wall sconce down until the slack of the electrical wires is taken up and the fixture can safely dangle. Keep your hands away from the wires. Now, test the wires with a circuit tester to make sure the power is off.

Separate the wall sconce wiring from the wiring in the junction box. Just unscrew the small colored wire nuts and pull the wires away from each other. Now, straighten out the wires coming from the junction box so you can tie them into your new wall sconce with greater ease.

Install the sconce bracket, that came with the light fixture, into the junction box. Make sure you align the screw holes of the bracket properly so your new light fixture will install straight and level.

Typically, you will have two wires and a ground coming out of your junction box for a bath light fixture. Simply attach the black wire of the light fixture to the black wire coming from the junction box, the white wire of the fixture to the white wire in the junction box and bare copper grounding wire of the fixture to the bare copper grounding wire in the junction box.  Use plastic wire nuts to twist the wires together in a permanent connection. If there is a grounding screw on the bracket that the fixture screws into, attach the grounding wire to that screw.

Once all your wire connections are made, go ahead and gently let the wall sonce down until the slack in the wires is gone and the sconce is hanging. Keep your hands under the sconce to catch it if your wires don’t hold up. This is a test and the wires that are twisted together should be able to support the fixture versus gravity. Your connections are good if this works.

Get the long screws that the fixture came with and put them within reach. While holding the new wall sconce, push the wires into the junction box carefully as begin to push the light fixture into place. Once the wall sonce is in place and properly lined up with the bracket mounted on the junction box, use one hand to grab the long screws. Gently fasten these into place. Make it tight but do not over do it. Nice work, you’re done.

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Are you looking for a safe step stool to use? Then you probably want compare a couple of different makes & models to find the one that works best for you.

Which one is best for a kitchen step stool? that depends on which features are most important to you. so you may want to ask yourself, “What am I trying to accomplish in the kitchen.” this simple question and a little investigation into the features of each step stool will help you choose the right kind for your kitchen that works best for you.

Are wooden steps the best choice for a kitchen step? Let’ see, this wooden can come painted in different themes or characters, you can get them made for children with Mickey Mouse or your childs favorite cartoon character painted on them. the one for childrens are smaller and lighter so your child can drag them around easily. Kids steps are usually made to handle a maximum load of about 150 pounds, so we’re talking about young children. the wooden one made for children are not a safe step for your kitchen! Check the load rating!!! If it looks like it was made for a child, it probably shouldn’t be used in your kitchen.

The most popular steps for kitchen use are folding. Why? For 2 main reasons: first they are the cheapest to purchase and they fold up to store, taking up very little space. you can find the folding steps in most hardware stores like Lowes or Home Depot and in department stores like Target and Wal-Mart. but buyers beware of these folding step stools!! the load rating on these steps is very low, typically between 150-225 pounds. If you stand on the second rung of the folding steps and lean over, you may find yourself on the floor. These type are not very stable or sturdy.

Most plastic step stools are single piece construction, but I’ve seen 1 or 2 that do collapse for storage purposes. the most popular of the plastic kind is the Rubbermaid brand. the reason why is they are easy to find at your local hardware or department store and they are cheaply priced. be absolutely sure to check out the load rating on these Rubbermaid before you get it home to find out it is too flimsy for your needs.

Metal type come in various shapes and sizes for different industries, but they all have one glaring problem, the rubber pads used on the bottom the legs will wear through, making it far too easy for this to slide out from under you. the second problem with metal type is the welds that hold the legs to the step are prone to break or at best, crack. Making this unstable, and a huge liability waiting to happen.

Deep foundation piers are useful in most areas of Michigan. but aren’t there any soils that are totally stable? One could say a tentative yes. but Michigan soils are so varied and each soil type can take on so many consistencies that every site requires a specific test and/or evaluation.

Michigan’s soil strata are deeply affected by their history. during the ice age, ice flowed ground rock into various soil categories and push them all around. The topography was left with many lake and low lands along with rolling hills and sand dunes. Rain, weather, and soils were ideal for tree and vegetation growth. As the years passed, trees and vegetation turned to organic soils. Lakes filled in. Swamps, lowlands, and wet lands created unique characteristics. Floods carried soils down stream and laid its sediment.

At the same time, shifting sand dunes lined Lake Michigan. In between these extremes are the rolling hills, forests, farm land, and so on.

Each type of resulting soil from sand to loam to clay to marl and muck have varying characteristics: soft to hard, loose to dense, well graded to poorly graded. Loose and soft soils do not support foundations well. Clay soils hold water that can freeze and heave and push basement walls. Reverse grades can run water toward structures. This means every site can have endless specific characteristics and remediation requirements.

The ability to address such a wide array of challenges with soils is one of the biggest advantages of steel deep foundations. The term “steel foundation” or “deep foundation” specifically refers to pre-construction underpinning or foundation repair with helical and push piers. these piers offer great flexibility to be designed to the soils, load requirements, and access challenges. because they’re vibration free, installing these piers doesn’t damage neighboring structures. They’re quickly installed, ready to use, easy to calculate capacity, and many times, the only rational answer to a settlement situation.

One pier type is particularly effective in this type of soil condition. these are referred to as “helical” piers or sometimes “screw” piles, and do not require the resistance of an existing structure. They can be installed directly into soils, since they’re designed with one or more helix-shaped “flights” (metal plates) welded to a steel shaft. This allows installation using torque rather than resistance. these piers are necessary in pre-construction applications, and are sometimes preferred in foundation repairs. On the other hand, “push” piers are driven hydraulically and utilize the resistance of an existing structure as counterweight. Either pier type is optimal for installation to effectively underpin or repair a foundation.

The crawl space beneath your home may have ongoing problems such as mold, mildew, and bad odors-and the sad part is that you may be totally unaware of these issues. It isn’t your fault; these problems are sneaky and can reside below the radar. but, it is very important to maintain the space beneath your home before any of these small problems become bigger concerns. Examine the area and take any necessary precautionary measures needed to keep it dry, clean and mold-problem-free!

The first step to a clean, dry, mold free space is to identify the problem and eliminate all signs of mold and mildew. Mold is the most common problem found in basements and crawl spaces. along with mold comes horrible smells and odors. The main source of mold and terrible smells and odors is moisture in the air beneath your home in this space.

Mold has a tendency to grow anywhere, and can grow on the floor joists, under sub-flooring and on debris that is forgotten and left behind by the homeowner. by developing a solution that will help dry out your crawl space, properly removing the mold and mildew, and developing a solution to prevent moisture in the future-are all extremely important. Depending on the extent of your mold issue, you may need to call on a professional to evaluate the space, and devise a plan to properly eliminate your mold.

Level of Moisture

The best solution to achieve a dry, clean, mold-free space is to closely and regularly check and evaluate the moisture levels. there can be many unknown sources of moisture that can and will affect the area. Sources such as rainfall, ground water, open drains and vents, un-vented appliances, and the lack of a proper vapor barrier can and will allow for moisture. Installing a proper vapor barrier will help eliminate moisture from forming and entering into the space.

Also, consider closing off vents to assist in reducing outside moisture from entering your crawl space. An effective dehumidification strategy may also be required to dramatically decrease and eliminate moisture.

Smells and Odors

Can you smell that smell? Bad smells and odors are caused by mold in damp air. Different types of mold tend to produce a byproduct called a VOC or volatile organic compound that causes bad, foul smells and odors. The only way to get rid of bad smells and odors is to completely rid it of the source of the mold. by cleaning this area and completely ridding it of mold, you’ll notice a change in the air quality and the smells. However, you need to be sure to remove the source of moisture; otherwise, you’ll find more mold even within the next 24 hours.

Call on a Professional

If you have removed all old debris and completely cleaned your crawl space from top to bottom, but still have continuous issues with mold, mildew, bad smells and odors, it may be best to call a professional waterproofing expert in to evaluate the space and recommend the best and most cost efficient way to solve the problem. Most waterproofing contractors give a free estimate, discuss your options and give you plenty of time to make the best decision. We recommend waterproofing because the water and moisture are the causes of your crawl space mold.

Maintenance

Once it is dry, clean, mold, mildew and odor-free, it is very important to maintain the area. to ensure a dry, clean, mold and odor free crawl space, schedule routine check ups and look for future occurrences every six months.

Cleaning your Chandelier

Chandeliers can be the focal point of whatever room they are in. they can bring elegance and beauty to living rooms, dining rooms, entrance halls and more. However, if not taken care of and cleaned properly, these beautiful lighting fixtures can also take away from the room they are in.

Due to intricate nature of many chandeliers, people are reluctant to clean and care for them properly until it is absolutely necessary. 

Cleaning your chandelier should be a planned event so that you are not rushed. Care needs to be taken so that crystals are not dropped and damaged. Two generally approved methods of cleaning would be wet cleaning with a cleaner or dry cleaning with a feather duster or dry cloth. 

Dry cleaning should be carefully done an least once every 2 months. Generally it would be good advise to follow the manufacturers instructions for your particular chandelier. if using a wet cleaner it is important to be sure the cleaner will not damage the surface of your chandelier. 

If you have a particularly ornate chandelier you might consider contacting a lighting store for assistance in locating a professional to clean your chandelier.

 If you choose to clean the chandelier yourself there are some safety guidelines you should follow:

1. Turn off the electricity at a breaker box to prevent electrocution.

2. Plug in another light from a different power supply to make sure you have enough light to properly do the job.

3. use a properly sized ladder if needed to you can access all areas of the chandelier safely.

4. Place a soft blanket covered by a sheet of plastic drop cloth under the chandelier. the plastic sheeting will catch any dripping from cleaning solution and the soft blanket will provide a safety net should one of the crystals fall.

5. take out all bulbs from the fixture and set them aside.

6. Lay a towel at the bottom of a sink or dish tub and half fill with warm soapy water.

7. Fill a large container with hot clean water and a towel for rinsing the crystals.

8. one section at a time, remove the crystal saucers and drops from the chandelier, clean then rinse them. use a soft soapy cloth to clean the frame and replace the saucers and drops.

9. Repeat this process until the chandelier has been thoroughly cleaned.

10. Gently clean the bulbs and replace them in the sockets.

 Be sure the chandelier is thoroughly dry before restoring power to the fixture.

For more information about these beautiful lighting fixtures, please visit us at fantasylandlighting.com

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I love chandeliers. I love candelabras. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no better way to class up your surroundings and give even the most modern abode a Victorian edge than with a classic chandelier or candelabra design.

Wall of mirrors and chandelier (source: afterdinnerdesign.blogspot.com)

Hit the jump to see more.

Outdoor table setting with candelabra (source: unknown)Chandelier in attic bed nook (source: NYTimes.com)

Rustic living room classed up with chandelier (source: unknown)

Another outdoor table setting with candelabra (source: unknown)

Black chandelier over dinner table (source: unknown)

Loving how this blue candelabra stands out in this mainly black and white room (source: unknown)

Elaborate chandelier in a dining room (source: unknown)

posted by Umi Tags: furniture, furniture/decor Filed under: Home Decor

Check out these beautiful chandelier images:

St Sophia’s Russian Cathedral, HarbinImage by Ivan WalshThis beautiful Russian Cathedral is in Harbin, North China.the Russian’s built is when they occupied this part of China and despite the ravages of time, it’s still in a good state. the chandeliers and other fittings are lovely, as are the paintings, icons, and architecture.

4 Pigeons on St Sophia’s Russian Cathedral, HarbinImage by Ivan WalshThis beautiful Russian Cathedral is in Harbin, North China.the Russian’s built is when they occupied this part of China and despite the ravages of time, it’s still in a good state. the chandeliers and other fittings are lovely, as are the paintings, icons, and architecture.

St Sophia’s Russian Cathedral, HarbinImage by Ivan WalshThis beautiful Russian Cathedral is in Harbin, North China.the Russian’s built is when they occupied this part of China and despite the ravages of time, it’s still in a good state. the chandeliers and other fittings are lovely, as are the paintings, icons, and architecture.