Let there be light

Some people love shoes; others handbags. I'm obsessed with light fittings. My search for the perfect pendants for our house has taken me all over Auckland. I see them as accessories; as capable of 'lifting' our house as a designer handbag is of an outfit. These are some of the ones currently catching my eye. I have a budget of $5000 for all the entire household lighting (everything including wall mounts, recessed and vanity lights) which I know to some is a fortune. But to others – like the lovers of the $2000-plus Simon James Octo pendant featured here – it's miniscule. Needless to say I can only dream about the Octo but I have managed to pick up a few gems, mainly on sale.

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The house speaks

Our house has started speaking. It hates white. It loathes bleached or blonde wood. And it also doesn’t appear to much like the fine-boned furniture that comes attached to its mid-century heritage. A house of straight lines and sharp angles, it’s screaming out for softness, luxury and just a bit of glamour.

Since glamour is so subjective, it’s better restricted to fittings rather than fundamentals. This means I’m keeping the flooring, kitchen cabinetry, the bathrooms, paint and wallpaper, and appliances as timeless as possible and injecting bling into items that can easily changed, such as lighting. So my search for flooring has me running around showrooms that specialise in natural materials, such as stone and wood. I’m researching natural-textured (or grasscloth) wallpapers and wooden veneers and I’m looking for simplicity in the kitchen – the fewer buttons, bangs and whistles the better. But I’m going for serious glam in the lighting, finally selecting this Tom Dixon pendant for the open-plan dining/kitchen area.

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