I have been restoring vintage lights since I was a teenager in the mid-1970s. An Interstate highway was being rammed through the city where I lived, and I ran (steps ahead of the bulldozers, and with my shag haircut flying) from one incredible building to another, and from one incredible house to another, and salvaged everything I could.
My poor, bewildered parents. Their garage was soon chock-a-block with what I thought were treasures beyond compare. But which they thought was just useless flotsam. I did though once overhear my mom say: “Well, at least he’s not out doing drugs.”
However, when all their boring lights were systematically replaced with the most stunning lights they had ever seen – and all for free, rewired, and restored – they soon had second thoughts about the flotsam. (I paid for new parts by mowing lawns!)
Fast forward many decades.
One day I realized I had a pile of old lights rusting away in my basement. I hauled a few out, restored them (bringing back many old memories), and listed them on eBay.
At the time I had no idea, not a clue, that I had just radically changed my life.
Within months my life was unrecognizable, and I was working full time restoring vintage lighting and selling the fixtures across America.
My new e-commerce website is now online. Whoee! Please feel free to shop and purchase here:
My blog post are below.
Restoring Dignity
My online vintage lighting store. I purchased a 1920s pan-style fixture. It had been redone about a decade ago. New turn-key sockets were installed with cheap plastic keys. The wiring was plastic. And the thin chain was from Home Depot. The fixture has also been polished bright and lacquered. Oh, the horror. The fixture…
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. When I purchased this 1920s pan-stye fixture is was caked with paint. In the following image I had already started working on it, having removed its sockets and other parts: My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. The sconces are quite large and would be ideal for a home theater, three to each side. Fabulous! My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. I also have a similar 3-bulb version but it was missing the decorative ring which goes above the finial. My thought all these years was that I would find a matching ring. But the other day I looked at the forlorn 5-bulb and thought: Screw this! Bring…
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. With my new mission in play…get these fucking orphans listed for sale!…I hauled out the desperate fixture and got to work on it. First, I took it fully apart. This revealed that it was by Puritan. Oh! Then I soaked it in soapy water and scrubbed it…
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. It has been rewired and with new sockets. But they sockets were candelabra-sized. Meaning: too skinny. The true horror though that it had been spray-painted in a dull gold “hammer’ finish. Two arms were wobbly, too. And the ceiling canopy was wrong. In short, it had been “restored”….
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My online vintage lighting store. For ages and ages, I had listed a 1920s strap-style chandelier. It had not yet been restored and looked pretty grim. I realized that the poor dear would likely never sell as such, so I gently relocated the chandelier to the Magical Transformation Chamber. Wanna see the after? …
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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My online vintage lighting store. My online vintage lighting store.
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