Round Capiz Shell Lighting

15 Jul Round Capiz Shell Lighting

I’ve got some fun updates on our Addition coming this week for you (like it’s painted, and we have a driveway!!), and now that we are finally in the home stretch, we are seriously planning the room layout and fixtures.  The center light in this room is going to be important because of the vaulted ceiling, lending itself to not only being pretty, but being architectural.  The room is painted creamy white (everything!), and the tile is going to be charcoal gray – I’m reminding you of this so you have a background picture to place these ideas in.

Although I am completely in love with the Morris Lantern from Visual Comfort, I wonder if it is too…predictable?  not organic enough?  too “perfectly planned” looking?  It is gorgeous though.

visual comfort blog

5280 magazine

Not to mention that with everything else I want to do in this room, it is probably too expensive.  (even with my discount)  I thought about DIY-ing a fixture, but that scares me a little to be honest considering the scale that I need, plus the fact I really want something round.

(Tip:  To figure out the diameter of fixture you need for a room, simply add the width and length.  For example, my room is 15×19, so 15 + 19 = 34.  Therefore, the diamter of my fixture needs to be about 34″.  Of course, this is a very general rule of thumb, and you could go bigger if you liked.  I’m anting something clean and fairly simple for this room.)

A little searching led me to this look…large, round capiz shell pendants.

joel mchale’s bedroom as featured in instyle

cococozy

houzz

Capiz shells used in decor have an interesting backstory.  After Ferdinand Magellan discovered Capiz Island (a province of the Phillippines) in 1521, the Spanish came shortly thereafter with missionaries.  These missionaries knew they needed to use local materials to build churches, so the architect found a way to use the vast number of capiz shells by placing them in the windows, etc.  Some of these windows are still around today.

boarding 101

Capiz shells have a lovely, translucent, almost mother-of-pearl style glow to them.  I think at night, a fixture like this would look really pretty.  And I really like the more modern round shape.  At first, I only spotted the round versions on 1stdibs, but then I saw this one from Restoration Hardware.

restoration hardware

restoration hardware

They are on sale through tomorrow, and my husband and I are going to go look at them tonight!  I’m still planning on ordering the sconces I talked about in this post for the room, but maybe I will put black shades on them to pick up the black in the capiz pendant?  I do love me some black shades – there is something so romantic about them to me!

I will say, after staring at these photos for so long, I wonder if these look like disco balls?  But maybe that’s not so bad., ha.