Fixtures That Dazzle

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By Patricia Waters

What earrings can do for a face, crystal can do for an ordinary chandelier.

"It's like jewelry for light fixtures," says Diane Flynn, a designer and owner of Tweed Couch Interiors in Rockbrook Village.

She loves light fixtures with a bit of glitter. "It's like icing."

Flynn has placed sparkly chandeliers throughout homes, including in bedrooms and bathrooms, which is so au courant now.

Liz Vacanti, a designer with Interior Design Group in Omaha, notes that crystal-embellished chandeliers have graced grand homes and palaces for centuries. Today's interest, she says, possibly is related to a current infatuation with the 1960s - as evidenced by the television show "Mad Men," and its imitators, "The Playboy Club," "Pan Am" and recent documentaries and books on the Kennedy style.

No need to worry that a dazzling fixture might overwhelm a small room. A vintage fixture that Flynn discovered and refurbished with polishing, black paint and the addition of 168 teardrop crystals hangs in a smallish, 11-by-11-foot room off her main showroom. The fixture makes an immediate statement: Look at me.

Flynn, with the help of her sister in Columbia, Mo., is on the constant lookout for vintage fixtures that can be transformed with a bit of time, work, paint and perhaps crystals that Flynn collects. Other options at Tweed Couch - a treasure trove of new furniture and accessories and reworked and pristine vintage items - include a fixture with fewer teardrop crystals and a white, oval shade that glows with reflected light.

It's all about proportion, Vacanti says. Designers use mathematical formulas to determine the correct size of fixtures for dining rooms, foyers and so on, and the same principles should at least be considered with crystal chandeliers.

For example, "If you're putting two over an island in a kitchen and the dining room opens onto the kitchen, maybe you coordinate with a (dining room) fixture that has a huge lampshade but only one crystal hanging down."

Can you go overboard with sparkle? Vacanti says there's a fine line between fabulous and overindulgence. "It's just like faux painting ... you have to know the boundaries. Don't go crazy in every room."

To those who fear their rooms can't carry off crystal-embellished chandeliers, Flynn's advice is to take a chance. "It's just a light fixture. Go for it!"

Vacanti says part of her role as a designer is to educate clients and sometimes "push them out of their comfort zone."

"Some people are nervous about change," and need help in visualizing how something will look, she says. But ultimately, if you're going to spend money to redecorate, why not make it look different.