The floor lamp in our living room is a stainless steel torchiere that has seen better days. It was an expensive, modern light when it was new – but like a lot of things in our house (occupants included) it’s getting old. A recent jostling left the lamp listing slightly to port, so I’ve been pondering what to do to replace it with something more in keeping with the overall Greene & Greene aesthetic I’m (slowing) working toward.
My first thought was to build something like this wonderful creation from Grainger Arts & Crafts Studio, which is a rendition of a table lamp scaled up as a floor lamp. It’s very nice, although I’m not confident in my ability to pull off the joinery and carving on the lampshade. I saw an original table lamp with this same base at the Huntington last year.
Grainger Floor Lamp
In browsing though the Greene & Greene Virtual Archives yesterday I came across something interesting, a sketch for a light fixture that I don’t believe was actually built. This was drawn for the Thorsen House living room, but when I was there I didn’t see it. I also don’t see it in archival photographs ofd the living room.
I read somewhere that Mr. Thorsen wasn’t a fan of lights hanging from leather straps, although there are certainly two light fixtures on leather straps in the entryway of his house. This fixture looks like it would have been intended to hang from leather straps too. In the actual living room in the Thorsen house there are recessed light fixtures in the ceiling.
Recent photograph of Thorsen living room ceiling fixtures
I’m not “sold” on these recessed fixtures. Assuming the drawing below was used to make a pair or more hanging fixtures for the room I think it would have been more elegant.
I can imagine this fixture hanging from leather straps, but also used as a lamp shade in either this configuration (as a torchiere) or flipped over in the more traditional orientation. I’ll put this on the list to draw up soon. I’d hate to run out of projects…
Sketch for a light fixture for the Thorsen House
