Our Schonbek Chandelier

Sometimes we find some decent deals on Craigslist, and then sometimes we find deals that make us absolutely squeal { well, mainly just me squeal, not so much J!}.  I’ll give you one guess what this chandelier did to us. You see, this lighting situation for the dining room has been a real pain. We haven’t been able to decide what type of look we were going for, much less an individual light. Do we DIY it? Do we go with an industrial look?  Classic?  Vintage?  New?  There were so many options that we felt could go with the room, hence the months of indecision.

On Saturday this past weekend we found a rad vintage metal basket that was super long and could have been turned in to a great light fixture. We almost pulled the trigger on it, and then after talking for seriously an hour {ok, maybe it was 20 minutes, but it was still long enough that I was over it!} we decided that was not the look we wanted. DIYing something? Sure! Industrial look, though? No. We finally decided we wanted to go with a classic looking {vintage or new} chandelier. And guess what? The next morning we scored this beauty off of Craigslist!!

The chandelier is a Schonbek, and the guy that we bought it from originally bought it back in 1997 for $1,800. To my surprise when I looked it up on Amazon when we got home, it is still selling for that exact price! Guess what we paid?!

$500!

And, he sold it to us with these {ugly} shades on over the bulbs, and ones identical are selling on eBay currently for at least $50, so hoping to make that money back and bring our grand total to only $450.

Once we got it home we installed it right away. We couldn’t wait to see it in action {even though we already tested that it was working at the guys house}. This thing needed some serious cleaning. I found an easy solution to cleaning crystal chandeliers here on Apartment Therapy that definitely helped:

2 tsp. rubbing alcohol

1 pint warm water

All you have to do is mix those two together in a spray bottle and go to town spraying your crystals. We put a towel on the ground underneath the chandelier to collect all the drippings of water. I know that this will be how I will keep it clean in the future, it was so easy. With the amount of DIRT {not just dust} though that was on this beauty, I still had to go in by hand and use that same solution and clean each.individual.crystal. Shoot me now! Hopefully that will be the last time I really have to do that.

All in all, we are obsessed.  Smitten.  Head over heels.  This quite possibly might be my most favorite Craigslist purchase to date, and thats saying a whole lot. We feel like it totally completes the room. Adds elegance, class, and charm.  Don’t you think?!

So now, go stalk your Craigslist.  The chances of you finding something amazing are great, you just have to be patient:)

Details on the table and chairs coming up next week! Have a fabulous weekend loves!