Inspiration | Interpretation - A Floor Lamp
See what it becomes in your unique life
When the work, words, home, style, or talents of someone else makes your breath catch, stirs a longing, or causes you to lean in with curiosity, this is simply part of them reflecting part of you. Their life and work is not a prescription or formula, but an invitation for you to live fully yours. Take that awakening, that curiosity, and see what it becomes in your unique life.
In a tiny bedroom tucked into the attic gable of the old ranch house up the road sat a brass floor lamp. It was tarnished, dirty, and topped with a large, ugly shade. It was the only thing left in the room. I paused, and saw something worth saving.
I tend to prefer lamps in general, and floor lamps in particular, to be understated, there to quietly offer light in a room or beside a favorite reading chair. Not for me is the lamp that makes a splashy ta-da! At first glance, this one did, but there was something about it that told me it might be different from what it seemed.
I brought it home. First to go was the big, garish shade (it didn’t even make it through the front door), which would be replaced with a simple white linen one, to be sourced when I had the time. Then I remembered, in the stash of things I’ve been collecting for pond house, I already had an extra white linen shade, though much smaller, one of three matching, of amazing quality, in an empire style — narrower at the top and wider at the bottom. I’d found them at a thrift for a few dollars each (two are destined for the swing-arm lamps in the bed nook). Well!
Everything changed the moment I put the smaller shade on. The floor lamp that was previously shouty became subdued. Quieted. Understated. Simple. Curiously, then, an inspiration image that I’d tucked away came to mind.
It was of the floor lamps in Brooke and Steve Giannetti’s Tennessee cabin which feature a shorter height, a slim stem, and smaller, flared white linen shades. Quiet. Understated. Simple. There you go. The same idea, said in a different way.
I’m a lover of story. Even a lamp story. And when a vintage lamp from here is paired with a linen shade from there, with a shorter harp and replacement finial from another place entirely, the story deepens. It expands to include the nuance, the use, the past, the present, the imperfect turned perfect for here and now.
More Inspiration/Interpretation to read:
Yes, that looks like a Very Nice Lamp!
When you mentioned a floor lamp with a small shade I immediately thought of the Gianetti’s. Happy to see that we both were intrigued by them 😍