Purple is one of my favourite colours. I have a purple Holland bike which is a beauty. Our first sofa was purple velvet, so soft and luxurious. I have painted numerous rooms purple, including a feature wall of recessed paneling in our current bedroom.
So finding a gorgeous purple glass chandelier at an antique market in Brussels at the exact time I was looking for a new light fixture for our dining room seemed perfect.
But it started me down a difficult road.
Once Upon a Time …
The story started long ago. We had just moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, and I had taken a new job. Everything felt new and exciting, but also a bit unsettled, and I was keen to make our rented flat as welcoming and comfortable as possible. One important task was to add light fixtures, as Swiss homes tend to come without any overhead fixtures, just bare bulbs.
We were in Bruges for the weekend, when we came across the most stunning purple glass chandelier, sitting on a blanket on the ground at a market, obscurred by other items for sale.
It was lovely. Simple, not too ornate. Purple! Glass, with 5 arms, and the most beautiful glass covering the main stem of the chandelier.
I could immediately picture it hanging in our dining room, with our beautiful purple and blue rug from Anthropologie. (Check out the restoration of this rug here.) It is not every day you see a stunning purple glass chandelier in such good condition. I knew it would be perfect.
The price was high, at 800 Euros, and we had to find a way to get it home too. But it was so unique and perfect, we could not pass it up. The seller assured us he could ship it, so we made the purchase and walked away with a photo to hold us over until it could arrive.
Had I known the anguish that would come from this purchase, I might not have made the purchase …
The Purple Chandelier Arrives
When the chandelier arrived, the box did not seem very well packed, and I could hear glass clinking around. Holding my breath, I opened the box and knew immediately there was a problem. The mass of bubble wrap did not fill the box, and there was plenty of room for the chandelier to shift around. I pulled off the wrapping, and underneath, the broken chandelier lay broken in numerous pieces.
I will admit, I immediately started crying. It is just a material thing, and there are much bigger issues in the world. But I knew this chandelier had survived many years and seen many things, including wars, house moves, who knows what? And here it was, destroyed by one careless person. I was devastated for the loss of such a gorgeous piece of history.
Our solution? We shoved the box into the attic, out of sight. I just could not look at it, and I spent the next six months trying to get my money back from the seller. I only ever got half the money back, despite weekly calls and pressure to the seller, but there was not much more I could do. He had insured it, but the insurer refused to pay out. It was a very expensive lesson.
Five Years Later
Fast forward five years later, and we were moving to London. We cleared out the attic, and there was the chandelier. I knew I needed to deal with it, but the idea of even looking at it was difficult.
I pulled the pieces out of the box, and slowly, calmly, I began to look at what had survived. The sad thing was, had he simply wrapped it better or even disassembled the chandelier, it would have been fine. I began to take it apart, hoping I could salvage something for another purpose. As I worked through the pieces, I discovered that while all five arms were broken, four of them were clean breaks at the metal base.
Only one was broken in the middle.
Two of the glass shades had been destroyed, but one had a clean break. Three had survived.
Everything else was in good shape, including the centre piece covering the stem. I began to think that maybe something could be rebuilt out of the devastation. I carefully packed everything up, and carried it with us to London.
A New Old Purple Chandelier
Once we were settled, despite living in rented flats with no space for a purple glass chandelier, I researched glass restoration. I found a company with excellent reviews and beautiful work, including experience restoring chandeliers for Buckingham Palace. It seemed they might know a thing or two about my options.
I reached out to Wilkinson Ltd, sent photos, and explained the situation. They wrote back saying they could help us. My husband carried the pieces of the chandelier down to their shop, about an hour outside of London, and once they had seen the damage, they came back with positive news. The arms could be repaired, and the broken glass shades could be remade through the magic of glass blowing. And all for £400, nearly equal to the cost I had gotten back from the seller. It felt too good to be true.
We needed to rewire the chandelier as well, which we knew when we purchased it, so this added a cost of £250. We approved the work, and several months later, it was done.
The Final Result
You would never know it had been broken. The team at Wilkinson did an amazing job, and I could not have been more pleased!
Because we had nowhere to hang the chandelier, it has been living with us, in its box, in a safe space. Huge letters warning anyone who even looks at it: FRAGILE. CHANDELIER. DO NOT SET ANYTHING ON TOP.
The Time Has Finally Come
Now, 11 years on from when we first spied the beautiful purple glass chandelier at the market in Brussels, it finally has pride of place in our London flat. It now hangs over our dining room table.
Our electrician, Dave, from Barton Electrics, who is amazing, was a bit nervous after hearing the story. He and my husband joked that if anything happened to the chandelier during the install, they would escape in his van never to be seen again! Probably a wise idea.
Fortunately, they did not need to escape, and the lovely chandelier is hanging up in our living room/dining room. I debated hanging it in our bedroom, because I love a chandelier in the bedroom, but it felt right in the dining room.
To complement the chandelier, I found a lovely ceiling medallion on ebay.
And the anguish is over, the story complete.
Completing the Look
To complete the look, we recently purchased a blue marble-topped pedestal table from Barker and Stonehouse, and the purple chandelier looks amazing against the grey walls and over the blue table. Blue and purple just work together, don’t they?
We have blue and teal accents in the room, and we just found these dining room chairs, also from Barker and Stonehouse, after more than a year of searching for the right chair.
The dining area has really come together, and I love sitting on the sofa and admiring the chandelier, knowing the agony it has caused and the joy it now brings. Endurance and resilience paid off, and I could not be more pleased.
What do you think? Was all the effort worth it in the end? Would you consider a purple glass chandelier for your home? Tell me in the comments.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this beautiful room possible: Wilkinson Ltd, Barton Electrical Supply, and Barker and Stonehouse. (This is not a sponsored post, just a shout-out to the great help we had throughout this saga!)
Let’s enjoy a few more photos of this transformation, shall we?
Save the pin for future inspiration
