Unconvetional Chandelier

In the past I've designed a home and turned my wife loose on the interior design because she is good at it. This time I got a little more involved. Since we had somewhat of an industrial design going, i've had an idea in the back of my head for months. I hate shopping so i never do this type of thing; but one day i was checking out some different things on ebay and came across so old street light lenses for $15 and a walk/don't walk sign for $15. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but i just had to have them for that price. I bought them and stored them in my office for a while. I recently installed them both into the home and these are the results.

To build the chandelier I spent about $80 on various black pipe fittings in 1" and 3/4" diameter. I then purchased some inexpensive black pendants without shades so the cost was pretty minimal. I took the street light lenses to a glass company and had them drill out some holes in the center of the lenses because they had to be done with special tools. I assembled the parts as I ran the wiring, then mounted it to a beam over the dining room. For a little extra style I purchased some stylish filament type bulbs. We also tried large 5" diameter bulbs that also looked pretty cool, but we preferred the shape of this vintage style bulb. Another bonus, because of the fitting I used where the light mounts, we can rotate the chandelier according to wherever the dining table is positioned.

The walk/ don't walk sign I turned into a do not disturb light by my office door. With a little forethought, we wired the office with a switch to control the sign from my desk. When i'm on a call and don't want to be disturbed, I switch the light to don't walk and my family knows to give me a minute. Really it's more of a silly gimmic than anything, but it's a fun little feature and we have the only street lights and walk don't walk signs within 50 miles.

Before and After

These before and after pics have been a long time coming and I have a lot of filling in to do between the framing stage and these pics. We got so busy working on this remodel project I never got around to blogging about the progress.

First on the list of pics is the exterior. When I started this project, my goal was to design it in such a way that no one would know that it was a remodel. Its always been a peeve of mine when someone ads on to their house without any forethought as to incorporating the addition into the existing design of the home. For us, it was a complete change of architectural style. The way the old home sat in comparison to the lay of the land made this addition very challenging. The winters are long and cold in the mountains, so having a garage was also a requirement. It was challenging to incorporate an attached garage with the addition, working around the lay of the land and the existing home. I've never had a design project this challenging, but it's been fun to see something different than I have designed in the past come together.

The old 'cube of butter with a roof' as I referred to it:

And the new design:

The old Fireplace:

And the new Fireplace:

The old front door:

And what is in it's place now:

And the relocated Entry:

Old Kitchen:

New, relocated Kitchen: