Nothing says chic country charm like a rustic outdoor chandelier.
Although chandeliers are often associated with crystals, bright prisms of light and ornate décor, the rustic outdoor variety of chandeliers are all that country charm encompasses.
Whether you love the raw appeal of original rustic chandeliers or their modern day streamlined counterparts, rustic chandeliers are a defining feature in rustic outdoor lighting.
Choosing The Right Rustic Outdoor Chandelier
The first point to consider is what look you are your aiming to achieve with your rustic outdoor décor?
If your idea of rustic decoration includes vintage items collected from yard sales and antique stores then the authentic, raw look of forged iron rings or wooden wagon wheels is for you.
Although it’s become almost impossible to find an original rustic outdoor chandelier from our pioneering past, modern craftspeople specialize in creating authentic reproductions, right down to the hand-forged iron bolts which hold them together.
Our ancestors designed rustic chandeliers as a crude form of decoration, but more importantly, as a way to distribute light across a wider area.
So the original designers utilized rural, purpose-built equipment to create their outdoor chandeliers. Hence, the two basic design elements you’ll find in the original models are hand-forged iron rings with fixtures to hold a number of candles or wooden rings with similar fixtures crafted from wood or iron to hold candles.
Another common design theme passed on from our ancestors is elk or moose antlers which have been drilled or gouged out to hold a display of candles.
Modern Day Rustic Outdoor Chandeliers
Nowadays, modern artisans and lighting manufacturers have reinterpreted the design of historic chandeliers and created up-to-the-minute equivalents that would enhance the lighting in everything from grand country homes to rustic cabins.
Many of the current models have transposed the original design themes into the latest designs. You’ll find rustic outdoor chandeliers with decorative motifs like elk, moose, deer and bears, or floral elements like acorns, twigs, ivy and pine cones.
These modern day interpretations of the original rustic outdoor chandeliers include everything from candlelit reproductions of the old wagon wheels to upmarket, chic lighting fixtures with abstract rustic features.
Original or reproduction antlers are also used as a base for modern designed rustic chandeliers.
In fact, many of the current model rustic chandeliers wouldn’t look out of place on the balcony of an upmarket Manhattan apartment.
Rustic outdoor chandeliers come in such a wide variety of designs and styles that no matter what your décor or your budget, you will find something to suit.
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