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Another great week on the Road to Rome. We left "Sonni California" for the grey skies of Seattle and I am loving every minute of it! The countless antique stores, vintage shops and street fairs have produced so many goodies like this peachy bedazzled hat box! Read More 
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San Francisco is made up of old homes turned rentals and I happen to live in one of those beauties! Full of great character, lovely charm aaaand out dated fixtures. haha! As a rental you can only do so much to give the place a facelift, paint goes a long way with walls and furniture but those run of the mill flush mount lighting fixtures...eek! One day while browsing the free section of Craigslist I came across a company that was getting rid of laminate samples, they were colorful and made my creative brain start to tick. I picked them up and brought them home where they sat on my desk for months before inspiration hit. Read More  A few months ago while treasure hunting at the Alameda Antique Faire hidden behind piles of items I saw a lily pad base popping out and was instantly in love. I have seen this type of lamp before but never with an ornate shade base. They were beautiful and they needed to come home with me! Once home I did some thinking and decided that though they are lovely in their original form I wanted to update them. My first thought was Edison bulbs, industrial chic and modern. To do so the lamps needed to be rewired from a chandelier base to a standard socket. This is something I have never attempted before so I took them to a lamp expert only to be told it would cost $110...Eek! Not willing to drop that much cash on a couple of lamps I decided to give it a whirl myself...after all I changed all the electrical sockets and hardwired the ceiling pendants at the shop why was this any different. After digging through the lamp kit section at my neighborhood hardware store I found what I thought might do the trick!  1 of 2 Vintage Lily Pad Table Lamps  Chandelier base to be replaced with standard socket  Tools needed to complete transformation  Chandelier base First thing make sure your wiring works, if it does not you will need to use new wiring. Secondly make sure the lamp is unplugged and gather your tools. In this case my wiring was good all I needed was a small flat head screw driver and the new socket. While removing the chandelier socket I made sure to mark which wire went with which screw, as you can see in the photo below one is silver and one is gold. I used a purple sharpie and just scribbled on the wire to be connected to the silver screw. Slide your wires through the hole that attaches the socket to the lamp, bend the wires around the proper screw and tighten. Screw the socket back onto the lamp, add a lightbulb and hit the switch! It really is that easy!  New Standard Socket
 Final Product The lamp expert I spoke to said it was hard work and time consuming hence the hefty price tag. This took me 15 minutes and $9 to complete both lamps. I was a little weary after hearing how hard this could be and I didn't want to ruin such beautiful pieces, but when I plugged the lamps in and the light bulb lit up I was elated. I called Dad to tell him my story so proud of myself for accomplishing something new, but what really made me smile was what he said about the lamp expert, "He hasn't met a Stoecker"! Dad was right, as usual, you can do anything you put your mind to, have confidence in yourself and give it a whirl. Thanks Dad!
We have arrived in Seattle, picked up the rental car and have traveled north of the city to the town of Bellingham. The clouds have cleared and the sun is shining through the windows of our weekend rental. Lighting is so important in creating atmosphere and nothing beats natural light, but well placed lamps are key for those typical grey San Francisco and Seattle days. Here are a few lamps currently available at the shop.          Check back for more Seattle adventures and finds!
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~ ABOUT ME ~
Creative Owner of Delightful Designs, a boutique where furniture is given a new colorfully chic life! Read more...
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November 2017
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