Period Lighting Fixtures Much of the feeling of a period room lies in the detail of the fixtures. The furniture may be conglomerate, but if the walls and proportions are true to the period and the fixtures as well, a seal is set upon the room. Detail of design is the index to the periods, and in no other way can we so distinctly and faithfully carry out the spirit and design of those historic decorative eras than by insisting on fidelity to original designs in the fixtures. A wrought iron fixture of early Italian design marks the period of the 16th Century, while a gilded wooden polychrome fixture of Italian Renaissance lines marks it as a later period. The same may be said of Adam fixtures, the design being so marked and exquisite as to attract immediate attention and give the room its distinctive period stamp. It does not always hold, however, that a room must be thoroughly furnished according to period requirements. It is sufficient in these days of eclectic decoration that the lighting fixtures be suitable to the spirit of the period or nationality of a room. Visualize a room in which the rug is Chinese, the walls a plain tone and the hangings suggestive of the Chinese in design. As a distinctive touch, use four Buddha brackets picked out with the yellows and orange and blues of the rug and hangings. Here is a room at once unusual and harmonizing in spirit. 
A Buddha for a Chinese room, painted to match hangings.
Very often an English or Colonial room is given a little needed sparkle by the use of a colorful French fixture - a bouquet or basket with enamel or painted flowers. Fixtures of Louis XVI design with their miniature classic lines are quite appropriate in a Georgian white paneled room. 
Painted to match walls and striped colors. Mulberry bead drops.
For a dining-room with dark walls, an antique gold baroque shield as backplate with the arms topped by a wreath of fruit done in dull warm colors, gives much richness and carries out the feeling of an oak-furnished dining-room. 
A delicate, hand-carved design suitable for any bedroom.
Silver fixtures also look well on the gray walls of a dining-room. In this instance they should be closely patterned to the design of the furniture. 
Suitable for a Colonial or French bedroom. Deep ivory basket and old-fashioned flowers.
Cheap brass fixtures with an oval backplate can be quite transformed by painting them to suit the background of the wall paper and striping them in one or two of the colors found in the hangings or upholstery. With parchment shields to match they pass as quite an unusual and expensive fixture. Crystal fixtures have come back. They find their place in any formal room, where each crystal, playing with the light, enriches and enlivens the delicate wall surface. Another attractive fixture is so arranged that the light is reflected in a gracefully shaped mirror with a tiny garland etched in the glass. Such a fixture would go well in a bedroom with the frame painted and antiqued to match the hangings. This coloring of fixtures either following the original scheme for the room or painting old fixtures to match the scheme, is a new and interesting development in decoration, one that the householder will do well to remember. Next Page: Lamps & Shades - Color Ideas. | 