Abigail Ahern is a designer who is not afraid to experiment with anything and I admire her for it. Her style is so distinctive, fun, playful and full of joy that it's hard to resist painting my whole flat black right this minute. There may be black in the future, though. I have ideas. Ideas that come from the tips she shares on her blog. One of those tips she posted resonated with me so much that I did execute it. "Add a sense of wonder", she said. "... Something that doesn’t follow convention it will make your space far more drool worthy."
I looked at my vintage lamp with the little red stripe of fringe, and it gave me an idea to fringe-ify my two other table lamps. The lamps that I've been having trouble finding shades for. One that is so not modern, and one that is so modern. Why not give all three the fringe treatment? Modern white shades with fringe on three wildly different lamps. As she put it: "oddball".
I already had put black long fringe on the first vintage lamp, but it was too long and too black. It was ... off ... slightly, and not in a nice way. But red fringe? I had to try. Fringe is not modern Scandinavian design while white geometric lamp shades are. Putting that combination on three different lamps should sort of unify the 'look' without actually having three of the same lamps. Definitely not to everyone's taste, but I think that it worked out rather well.
Exhibit #1. First vintage lamp, ca 1920s brass. I wish the fringe was only a couple cm longer, but that was all the shop had, so I went with it. I wanted to have the fringe and the shade equal heights and to cover the socket a bit more, but hey: "oddball". The red fringe works so much better than the black did, so I'm letting it be for now.
I doubled the fringe, so that the bare bulb is not too bright when lit. It works pretty well to diffuse the light and tone down the bulb so that it doesn't hurt to look at the lamp at night. If the fringe had been longer, it would have been a complete success. Right now it's a 'mostly success' until I find longer red fringe, or it stops bothering me. Whichever happens first.
Exibit #2. Modern lamp. Luckily the shop had some of the same fringe left that I put on my 2nd vintage lamp. Doubled up again for the fuller look. I'd bought the white shade a while ago, so the shade was bare for a month or so. The white shade worked better than the old green one, but it was totally bland. It needed the little red stripe for oomph.
Something different, something out of the ordinary, "oddball". I love it! Thank you, Abigail, for this tip. It has made my home more fun.
