New Lamp Finials, Part One

This will be a two-part post so you will have to come back to see finished look.

When I was moving to the new apartment in January of this year, I needed to purchase pretty much everything you can imagine with the exception of kitchen gadgetry.  I sold or gave away much of my furniture when I sold the house because, quickly frankly, the majority of it would not have fit in the apartment.  So I started with a clean slate.  I knew the look I wanted and I took my time achieving it.  That meant sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a few weeks, but eventually I got the place furnished and I am very happy with the look.  Of course, is an Obsessive Compulsive Interior Designer ever really happy with the look?  You always see something that you would like to change or something that could be better.  Such was the case with two lamps that I bought while decorating the apartment.  These lamps are 28" table lamps.

The base of the lamps are made of resin to look like concrete.  I love them and I thought two of them would work perfectly in the new decor; one in the living room and one on a hallway table on the upper level before you enter the living room.  Indeed they do work and they look wonderful in the finished space.  However, there was one thing I did not like about them from the day they arrived and that is the faux concrete finials.

As you can see in this picture, the finials are a faux concrete also.  The faux concrete bases on the lamps are beautiful.  The concrete look with the brushed stainless accents is quite a spectacular look, but I think they went a little over the top with the matchy-matchy finials.  Not my favorite.  So I went searching online for something to take the place of these finials and I found it.

And here they are.  These beautiful square crystal finials.  I wanted something square that was in keeping with the design of the lamps.  I ordered these online, sight unseen, as we all do with online purchases.  I was pleasantly surprised to see when they arrived that they are even more beautiful than they appear online.  Really stunning.

Now we'll talk about why I ordered finials with a brass finish rather than a stainless steel or silver accent.  Years ago one never mixed these two finishes, goldtones and silvers.  Times have changed and it is no longer unacceptable to have both finished in your decor.  So, I thought it would be a good way to add an accent finish that would not upset the look too much.  As with the faux concrete finials - too much of anything is not good.  I have mostly stainless steel and silver tones throughout the apartment.  A touch of brass here and there helps to break up that constant and add some variety.

Be certain to come back and see how they look once I get them on the lamps