A Blue Peter chandelier

For those of you not acquainted with Blue Peter, it’s the world’s longest running children’s TV programme. It first aired on the BBC in October 1958 and was famous (at least in my memory) for making stuff. You could make anything if you just had glue, paper, scissors, and some tape. Personally, I think it was what inspired MacGyver.

Anyway, it’s what came to mind when PF suggested that I ‘fashion’ a chandelier for my living room. With 4-metre ceilings, I’d need something rather substantial; something authentic and rather substantial would cost serious money… money I didn’t have. He also made the point that up until you cross the threshold of my living room, my flat screams ‘contemporary’. Once you step inside, it goes all old-fashioned. It needed a transition – a link between the two worlds. Personally, I thought this was a little rich but hey, I’m not in the interiours business – what would I know? He suggested that if I continued the big, white ball theme that runs from the front door, down the hallway into the living room, I could have just that. A transition.

But it wasn’t as simple as getting three more big, white balls from Ikea. We had to make the mount. I used the term ‘we’ advisedly as all I did was source the jig saw (a belated thanks to PE) and the MDF. Now, I know from experience that when I have an idea in my head that I want to  materialise, all the explaining in the world just won’t do it. It has to happen before people can see what it is I’m on about. I had no clue where this was going. But I was sure of two things. (1) PF is an architect and knows his stuff. (2) I was sick to the back teeth of looking at a bare lightbulb. So much after much blood, sweat, and a few tears, voila!  I have a chandelier. One that is more than just a light – it’s a transition piece, a statement piece, a one-of-a-kind. Cheap at half the price!