Old Lights Made New

In the angle of the eaves where the house intersects with the bath house, the space cried out for a light. A hanging light or three. I’ve had these three glass shades for many, many years, but every time I got rev’d up about using them, someone would invariably insult them. Usually, I was icily informed that they look like my mother’s lights from the ’70s. Last week there was that still, beastly hot Labor Day holiday, where the best use of our time and diminished, slightly hungover energy seemed to be sitting in one place all afternoon fooling around with the wiring and all the various bits I gathered to get these lamps hung in that angle under the eaves. Electricity is fascinating. Keep the black wires with the black and the white wires with the white, splice, tape, and you’re good to go. I think in this context they look nothing like my mom’s old ’70s lamps, a decade I have no interest in channeling design-wise. But apart from the kind my kids bluntly dish out, I always welcome all friendly criticism. There’s lots of similar glass shades for sale on eBay under “swag lamp.”