French basket lightshades

As usual, I was in my element as I meandered through the array of twinkling jewellery, battered kitchenalia and fabrics galore at the vintage fair. I came out – much later – with a wide grin on my face. Aren’t these fairs one of the best ways – ever – of spending a Saturday morning???

Among the treasures coming home with us were a lovely fabric bag, a very heavy glass lampshade, a few glass bowls, marquisate-style necklace, old pot to hold some of my husband’s paintbrushes and – of course – some white linen.

AND some wire baskets which the stall holder told me she brought home from France. These were the most exciting as we already had a plan for a couple of them…

Don’t you LOVE some of the modern vintage/vintage industrial style around at the minute? Whilst I love our kitchen, I’m trying to pair back some of my floral tea cups etc. and introduce more industrial elements, so…

We (yes, the Royal “we” – I can’t even reach our light fittings with a long ladder and I could never hope to be as handy with any tools as my husband!) cut a little of the wirework away from the bases of 2 of the baskets and hung them as lightshades between the beams. They actually look much better in real life than in the photos and they let ALL the light through to give us a lovely bright kitchen, even on a gloomy day.

And, as a bonus, can you see how the left over pieces of wire are ready made (industrial-looking) stars for Christmas???

As for the bowls I mentioned earlier – they are gleaming after a quick wash and I will be using them to make Easter pressies in a few weeks time. Roll-on Spring!