How We Saved Hundreds on Our Island Pendants

Ashley

2 years ago

How we saved hundreds of dollars on designer lighting from Visual Comfort in our kitchen

There are SO many options out there for kitchen pendants. As we were redoing our historic kitchen, we knew we wanted something classic yet refined and simple. The range wall was designed to be a feature piece, and we didn’t want the island pendants to distract from that.

Visual Comfort has been my go-to brand for classic, well made, gorgeous lights (they’re also a favorite of Studio McGee, Jean Stoffer, and Whittney Parkinson, some of my design inspirations). They carry a pretty big price tag, though. Pendants in their Thomas O’Brien collection – my personal favorite – start around $400. We need two for our kitchen. I was struggling to figure out how $1,000 in lighting made sense.

A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE TOB PENDANTS

Until we found a way to purchase those same Thomas O’Brien lights I had been eyeing for a fraction of the price! eBay.

Many designers purchase light fixtures before the room is built and before their clients have seen everything installed together. The easiest way to sell those open box items that were purchased 6+ months before that their clients have since decided they don’t love? eBay.

But, even on eBay the Katie fixture with an acorn globe I had my eye on (retail price: $479 each) was $300 plus. Then I found ones without the glass – ones that were broken in transit or storage. Those were about $100 each. Much more reasonable… if you could find the glass.

And I did. One of my favorite lighting companies to buy from (who also has great Open Box specials on eBay) sells replacement glass if you contact customer service. Sometimes its pricey. On these Katie pendants, it was only $42 per globe!

THE QUOTE FOR REPLACEMENT GLASS

If you’re following along:

Retail price is $479 ($958 for two, plus tax)
On eBay, the pendants (metal part) are ~$100 (include “no glass” in the search terms)
Replacement globes are $40 + $10 in shipping
Total price for each of my pendants: $280.

We saved $670 by purchasing the pendant on eBay and the glass separately! And, there is NO WAY we could have found lighting this nice for $140 a pendant, even on Amazon or Wayfair.

Huge win.