So we bought this old house in Providence, as you know already if you have been reading this blog. It’s in fairly good shape: quite comfortable inside, has a new kitchen, central air conditioning, and acceptable plumbing. There is ample opportunity, however, for updating some of the rooms to make them a bit brighter and more appealing.
We have plenty of windows, but could use some better interior lighting. We thought we’d start by getting a new chandelier for the dining room, and also add some recessed lights and a ceiling fixture to the living room. This should give us a lovely layering of light throughout the downstairs. Our electrician agrees, and can install these lights for us, but after inspecting the house he gave us the bad news that he needs to replace our overloaded breaker box and much of our wiring. Although we had hoped to hear that our wiring is safe, efficient and ready for any kind of demand, the news was not entirely unexpected. (Kind of like how I always hope my doctor will say, “You are in great shape, and you can eat ice cream more and exercise less.” And he actually says, “You should get a colonoscopy.”)
Since we have to get that electrical stuff done, we figured we’d go ahead and replace all of the lighting fixtures throughout the house that we don’t like, i.e., most of them. We went to the lighting showroom with a list of the rooms that we want to transform into clean, well-lighted places. Our very helpful sales rep, Mark, let us wander around the showroom gazing up at lights for a while. Then he listened patiently to our rambling and not-always-coinciding descriptions of the types of lighting fixtures we like, explained about LED vs. incandescent lighting, and brought out catalogs for the three of us to page through.
For our foyer, Jeff and I both liked a pendant light from Hinkley called “Mondrian”. It’s interesting but not too dramatic, a composition of clear and semi-opaque glass rectangles and squares fitted into a metal box frame. Here’s an advertising photo of a hipster couple lounging under two Mondrian lights.
I jotted down the name, and we continued looking at other options. After a while Jeff said, “I think I like that Mandarin light the best.” I said, “It’s Mondrian.” Mark said, “Do you want me to look up the model number for the Mandarin light?” I said, “Yes, but it’s Mondrian, not Mandarin.” Jeff said, “I thought it was Mandarin.” Mark said, “Yeah, it’s Mandarin, like the chicken.” I said, “No, it’s M O N D R I A N, you know, like Piet Mondrian, the artist?” Blank stares. “C’mon guys, Mondrian, the painter who did those abstract paintings with colorful rectangles and squares.” More blank stares. I searched using my phone and brought up a couple of images to show them. Jeff said, “Oh yeah, that looks familiar.” Mark shook his head, and called out to another sales rep, “Hey Billy, come over here and look at this.” Then, “You ever see anything like this, what’s it, not Mandarin but something else?” I said, “It’s Mondrian.” “Nope, never seen anything like that,” Billy replied after looking at the images displayed on my phone. “But we don’t get out much around here!”
We had a good laugh, then finished selecting the rest of our lights. As we were getting ready to leave, Mark said, “You guys are funny. You should come here more often. And I learned something about art today!” As we were driving home, Jeff said, “That Monderan light is going to look great in our foyer.” And I, ever the straight man, said, “It’s Mondrian.”
A Year in Providence 