I wanted a light fitting that would ‘stand out from the crowd’.
Because it would be placed in front of a window and would be
visible from the front of the house, it had to be a show stopper!
I needed something perfect for our entrance area. This space is
incredibly angular with a ceiling height of 5.5 metres (or 18 feet).
I shopped, and I shopped, looking in many light fixture stores and I also
searched online. And then I saw it! An angular, complex, five tier, magnificent
collection of individual mirrors coming together to make the most stunning
light fitting I’d ever seen! And I had to have it!
The Manhattan Chandelier was perfect. At this point I can
admit to being a light fitting novice. The facts as I knew them
at this stage were that I’d need an Electrician to install them. Simple.
I had a few electricians on hand to do that. What I didn’t know is
many light fittings need to be put together.
The Manhattan was no different. Over 1600 individual pieces got
delivered to my house in one very large box. The frame, mirrors,
crystals and hooks were all loose, but individually wrapped in
plastic. This was a giant, life sized jigsaw puzzle that needed to
be assembled with very little in the way of instructions.
And it had to be done 5.5 metres above the floor! Something else I
learned during this exercise is scaffolding isn’t very stable when you
are standing on top of it! Each movement made me stress (just a little!).
To be fair, that’s quite high up for someone who likes her feet on
the ground! In total it took one full day to sort the pieces, lay them
out in their respective pattern for each tier and – (such a genius idea
I had here) – then I placed each side of every tier in it’s own labelled
ziploc bag! Twenty bags later, I was ready to begin assembling it!
It then took two of us, two full days to slowly piece it together. Each mirror
connected to a crystal then connected to another mirror and repeat! But every
minute spent on it, was worth it! It looks amazing, and I can say I built it!
It’s also pretty awesome that this house is known in the local area as
“The Chandelier House”.
xoxo