Vintage Charm, Modern Function
Did your home come with antique fixtures, maybe even the kind that originally used oil or gas instead of electricity? They can be easily adapted for life in the 21st century at Dason Lighting, Teaneck (201-837-7831). Owner Fred D’Atri and his staff also can revive a dulled bronze finish and restore any antique to its glory days.
"We’re a complete restoration business," D’Atri said. "If it was a gaslight or oil fixture and needs converting into electric, we do that...If it’s a fixture from the 1920s, and it was electric but the wiring now is shot, we can redo the wiring.
"By far, we do more restoration work than we do sales. If it takes a light bulb, even if it’s 20, 30 or 40 years old, we’ll work on it - whether it’s a chandelier, a wall sconce or a table lamp. Items don’t have to be 100 years old, but we’re specialists in 100-year-old lighting."
D’Atri explained that one of his shop’s specialties, which few other companies offer, is restoration and polishing of metal fixtures. His expertise with older lighting is also a plus, he said, in dealing with valuable pieces.
"If your (modern) lamp breaks, you might go to the hardware store and have a socket put in it," he said. "If you have an antique candelabra and the socket’s gone, are you going to trust the repairman to do it? Probably not. So we tend to get the more expensive lamps, rather than the inexpensive ones."
Oft-Neglected Element
D’Atri said he does most of his business through interior decorators, and knows from experience that homeowners put lighting changes at the end of their renovation to-do lists.
"We’re the lowest-paid of all your contract work," he said. "A renovation project typically runs out of funding by the time it gets to lighting, so no one wants to spend any money."
Then, about 10 years down the road, D’Atri has observed, the homeowners will decide it’s time to focus on their lights and come to him. In the meantime, though, they’ve missed out on the aesthetic and functional benefits of good lighting.
"When you walk into a dining room, (for example), lighting is one of the focal points," he said. "The first thing that strikes you is the chandelier."
Customers also can find all types of antique and collectible lights for sale at Dason, as well as new fabric shades from $50 to $350.
Preserving High Quality
Bryan Kule also repairs older lighting fixtures at Shades of Soho, with stores in both Glen Rock and Norwood (shades-ofsoho.com). When converting an oil or gas lamp into electric, he said, it’s a simple process to clean out the lamp and then attach the parts and wiring to make it run on electricity.
"The older stuff - like the old gas lamp that had the chimney glass around it - people break those all the time," Kule said. "I can find a match every time to those glass pieces. People get so excited that they can get the exact one they had from the 1950s or prior. But if someone brings me something new, there’s no replacement for it because it’s made in China."
He said he enjoys working on older fixtures because they possess a quality of craftsmanship not found in modern-day pieces, which tend to use "subpar pieces and are glued together." Another difference in modern lamps, he explained, is that they may have weights inside instead of being made out of a solid material.
Kule said lower-cost lamps are meant to be tossed when a homeowner changes their décor or when the item breaks. With older fixtures, homeowners can expect the pieces to last for decades and can change aspects of the fixture to complement the surroundings.
"The older stuff from years ago is just much better-made - the pieces are all screwed in and locked in nicely," Kule said. "We’ve been doing this for 19 years. I learned from the old-timers of American manufacturing, so I know what quality is."
1 2 Next
Source www.northjersey.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment