chandelier problems

The first of this month I mentioned we were having a new chandelier put up in our entry.  I was BEYOND excited over here.  You may have even seen the progress shots in my Instagram story last week.  Old chandelier came down, new one went up and I feel in love.  Isn’t she pretty?!  I went with the Varick chandelier from Restoration Hardware.

The day progressed and the color of the light bulbs started to look a little odd.  Night fell and we had a full up problem.  The bulbs are straight up yellow/orange and put out minimal light.  Bleh.  I have the Edison style bulbs up in our powder room, and they are a nice clean white.  The bulbs that come with this chandelier most definitely are not.  Now, this wouldn’t be a problem if I was into the gothic vampire scene.  But I’m not.  Here’s a phone pic I snapped that night.

I wanted to bring this up because had I thought about this before hand I would have searched out a different chandelier.  You might be asking yourself, “Why look for a different chandelier?  Just switch the bulbs out crazy lady!  Not a big deal.”  Finding different bulbs was a nightmare.  There are a number of reasons why:

1) This chandelier will take no greater than 30 watt bulbs with a medium sized base (there are 16 bulbs).  You cannot find replacement 30 watt bulbs.  Try going to the store and asking for a 30 watt bulb.  The salesperson will tell you to hang on just so they can bring all their buddies over to laugh at the woman asking for a 30 watt bulb.  You can go down to a 25 watt incandescent bulb, but they’re going to be less bright and will still have a yellow color cast, though not as yellow as the Edison style.  Doesn’t solve the brightness or color problem.  And since they’re incandescent, they won’t last as long.  This is in a two story entry.  I’ll have to get a handy man out with a skyscraper ladder just to switch out the burnt out bulbs.

2) You could go with a different style bulb in LED, which will give you more light in less wattage and solves the color issue if it’s a color 4000K or 5000K (K refers to the Kelvin color temperature scale where warm yellow bulbs are 2700K and cooler white bulbs are 6500K).  But, it’s almost impossible to find LED without the white plastic piece that covers part of the base.  That poses a problem with this chandelier since the bulbs are completely exposed.  Arrgggghhhhh!!!!

3) Now, you can find LED Edison style bulbs, but you’ve got to be very careful to make sure the bulbs have a 5000K color.  Most Edison style are 2700K, which give off that horrible yellow/orange cast.  The clean white 5000K LED Edison bulbs are EXPENSIVE.  I would have spent $300 in light bulbs alone for this chandelier.  Que me banging my head on the table and gnawing my fist.  This option made me sick to my stomach.

I now know more about light bulbs than I care to after searching the internet high and low for a solution.  Two solid days of searching and I did finally find a solution.  Praise The Lord!!!  It cost me $100 in bulbs, which I still think is completely obscene, but when I compare it to the $300 that I could have spent, it feels like a win.  I found these globe style bulbs in LED without the white plastic piece and in a 5000K bright white.  They’re 4.5 watts (equivalent to 40 watt incandescent).

I just need the electrician to come back and install them.  I think he’s avoiding me.  He couldn’t get the ceiling fan up while he was here either.  Turns out not all down rods are created equal :/

Hopefully I’ll be sharing finished pics soon!