Gorgeous New Allium Wall Lamps

Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that among my favourite Christmas presents this year were the two Hannah Nunn Allium wall lamps that Andre gave me.

I've been coveting these wall lamps ever since I purchased an Allium table lamp from Hannah when I visted the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair (you can see it lit up and looking all pretty on my mirrored chest of drawers here), and subsequently bought a Blossom lamp to give to a family member as a Christmas present (which you can see in this gift round-up).

So naturally upon our return to the Nest (after spending Christmas with my parents in Yorkshire) I wanted to get the lamps on the wall as soon as possible. Fortunately for me, Andre is a patient man, so he put down his suitcase, and picked up a screwdriver.

Here's how our original wall lamps looked:

Yeah, not so pretty. OK, they're a nice, simple design - but my personal design philosophy is to, over time, fill our house with beautiful things that catch the eye on every glance. So the old lamps had to go.

First of all, we removed the old lamp shade. I’m using the royal we here, you understand - although I’m certainly not afraid to pick up a saw, I took a more supervisory (read lazy) role on this occasion. And then we removed the old silver light fitting:

Enrique was very interested in proceedings - whereas Penny felt it more important to recline on at least four cushions and work on her full figure:

We measured, drilled holes, re-wired, and finally screwed the lamp to the wall with one of those special bendy screwdrivers:

Here are a couple of tips. First of all, the lamps only came with holes at the top. When we screwed the first one to the wall, we found that the bottom of the lamp lifted away from the wall (probably because all our walls are wonky). We tried loosening the top screws to even things out, but then the lamp was too loose. So I very carefully cut a couple of extra holes towards the bottom of the lamp, so that we could screw the bottom of the lamp to the wall as well as the top:

I didn't notice I'd positioned the lamp with some random guy's face peeping through the gap until after I downloaded the photos. It made me giggle. Well hello there!

Second tip - you can just about see the pencil cross in the other picture above, which I had used as a mark to show where one of the holes should be drilled (in order for the lamp on the left wall to align to the lamp on the right wall, which we did first).

After measuring and marking I realised I’d put the cross immediately above the wire box – and if we’d drilled into the wall, we would probably have hit the wires in the wall. Ouch.

The wires for most wall lamps run from the ceiling to the lamp, so make sure you don’t drill immediately above a light fitting (or below, just in case they come from the floor). Or use one of those beeping things which detect hidden wires.

So we had to move el secondo lampo about ten cm to the left – and although this meant it didn’t line up with the first lamp, it still looked fine. When you’re working in a wonky older house, it’s sometimes more important to go by what looks good to the eye, rather than what the spirit level and tape measure tell you.

Here’s how everything turned out:

Yeah. The lamps are gorgeous. I’m really happy. So now in the living room we have two Allium wall lamps, one stunning white ceramic chandelier, one calla lily-inspired Ikea lamp (which you can see here and here) and one vintage wooden floor-standing lamp that was handmade by my Grandad. You could say I am fairly obsessed with lighting. You would be correct. Anyone else out there with a similar addiction?

Back tomorrow with more lovely Nestage – stay tuned :-)

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