Bloomingdale’s in Palo Alto, California just recently relocated to a new building. The old store, remained open to the public for a few more days selling fixtures, equipment and some of the furniture that the various brands had brought in over the time. Wandering through the deserted store was a rather sad experience, but everything was on sale and at very low prices! I saw some amazing Christmas decor such as huge outdoor wreaths that used to hang on the exterior walls of the store during the holidays, beautiful armchairs and comfy sofas for the customers to relax during shopping, all kinds of tables where merchandise was displayed, plenty of wall art and of course clothes racks of all sorts. I allowed myself to only one item and finally left the store with a table lamp.
I found it on the Estée Lauder beauty counter. And although its base was somewhat scratched
and its metallic shade was damaged with makeup that couldn’t come off,
it was an Artemide lamp – these are modern and stylish light fixtures, made in Italy and are pretty expensive!
However, it ended up being only $38 and I was so happy it became mine!
After I brought it home, I debated between using it as is, with its marks and scratches, on my son’s desk or give it a little facelift. After all, everything does not have to be new and shiny and with a little cleaning, I thought it might look nice.
But then again, I decided that my son already had a light fixture on his desk that worked just fine and that this new one would look nice in so many other places of the house.
So, I covered the switch, the exposed wire and the inside part of the shade with painter’s tape
and first sprayed a coat of oil based primer (I used this one)
and then a gold metallic finish (I used this one).
A few coats of paint and all the marks were gone! Here is the base; it was actually the most damaged part.
and this is the shade:
I can think of at least four different places where this table lamp would look nice in our home. Although it’s mainly designed for an office space, I would even place in on a console table in the entry way, or a side table in the family room. See how nice it also looks on the bedside table.
By twisting the flexible arm, the lamp shade can be directed wherever needed for maximum light when reading in bed, working on a desk or when extra light is required on a side table next to a sofa.
I did a little online research to find the actual price of this same model: around $320. I think I did pretty good!
Super!!!!