I'm in the process of redoing our foyer, wanted to give it a bit more pizazz, and one the things things it absolutely needed was a new light and ceiling medallion. I checked Wayfair and found exactly what I was looking for and bought both.
Let me say at the outset - this light is beautiful, well made and I would buy it again in a heartbeat. It has great appeal and it catches the attention of everyone entering the house. The not so good is that it takes a considerable amount of time putting it together and the "directions" supplied are little more than a parts list with a couple of very (and I mean very) basic and difficult to follow diagrams. The mounting bracket that was provided is very stout and well designed as this light, once assembled, is heavy (about 125lbs) and the last thing you would want is to have it come crashing down. Fortunately for me, when I built the house, I installed a cable through the ceiling that allows me to lower the light for cleaning. As a result, my installation did not need the supplied mounting bracket as it is attached directly to the lowering cable.
The light arrived in two large boxes with all the needed components that were well packaged and in perfect shape. My initial impression, when first unboxing the various parts, was that the copper colored wiring on the arms was run through the arms. Upon closer inspection I found that rather than being in the arms the wires are laid in a trough cut into the top of the arms. I started to panic when I realized that to complete the assembly I was somehow going to have to run a wire from the top where power comes in from the ceiling to the bottom where wiring for the arms is located in such a way that the wiring would be concealed and not negatively affect the appearance of the light. I looked through the couple pieces of paper posing as a "manual" and found no comments or recommendations as to how to do this and almost contemplated sending it back. However after unpacking all of the arms, I noted to my great relief, that one of the 8 arms had an additional set of wires coming out the top as well as the bottom. It was at that moment that I realized that the manufacturer had already run the wire to the top that was needed to bring power to the bottom. Assembly from that point on, at least as it concerns the main components, was fairly simple. Attach each of the 8 arms to the tops and bottom plates with the included screws, connect the wires at the bottom together and then make a connection with leads coming in from the top. As each of the 8 arms has 3 pairs of wires (48 wires total) all of which need to be connected, I chose to bundle the wires in groups of six. I combined all the neutral wires from two adjacent arms (6 wires) with one pigtail lead and all the hot leads (6 wires) with another pigtail. I continued working around the light until I was left with 8 pigtail leads (4 neutral & 4 hot). I then connected the 4 hot (line) pigtail leads with the hot (line) wire from above and the 4 neutral leads with the neutral wire and then fold them all up so that they would fit in the bottom of the light cover. This took a while to do and required a bit of finesse as there is a lot to cram into the lower cover and close it. Once the wiring was complete the next step is to attach the crystals (of which there are many). Once again the "manual" is lacking with a small diagram indicating where they belong. The diagram is quite small, not very detailed and this portion of the assembly left many questions as to where the correct attachment points belonged. After a bit of head scratching, a little common sense and a few corrections I was finally able to figure out where each went and did manage to assemble it correctly.
The long and short of this light is that it is very attractive but requires considerable assembly. I had wondered when I first purchased it how a crystal chandelier of this quality could be sold for such a low price. After putting it together I realized exactly how this is possible - the cost of assembly is not included. If you are not handy then I would highly suggest hiring someone to install and assemble this as there is a good chance that you will have issues putting it together and getting the wiring done correctly or worse, having it come crashing down.
