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Flawed Elegance: A Chandelier's Tale

The woman notices various imperfections in the design and decoration of the newly renovated home, including an off-center chandelier, paint blemishes on angels in the ceiling apotheosis, wood paneling that is too shiny, odd pink marble floors, an unbalanced combination of thick marble and thin iron in the staircase rail, and stair inlays that will become damaged over time. However, when her husband asks for her reaction, she tells him it is perfect.

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Adora Svitak
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8 views1 page

Flawed Elegance: A Chandelier's Tale

The woman notices various imperfections in the design and decoration of the newly renovated home, including an off-center chandelier, paint blemishes on angels in the ceiling apotheosis, wood paneling that is too shiny, odd pink marble floors, an unbalanced combination of thick marble and thin iron in the staircase rail, and stair inlays that will become damaged over time. However, when her husband asks for her reaction, she tells him it is perfect.

Uploaded by

Adora Svitak
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The first thing she noticed was the chandelier, hanging awry by half an inch.

It should have been at the center of the ceiling, but no, it was just slightly off-
center—and then the apotheosis depicted around it, the features of the angels—
there was a blemish here and a paint blur there. If you looked extremely closely,
too, you might see that the painter had used one color of paint for one strand of
hair but not for another.

Her gaze dropped to the wood-paneled walls, gleaming in their new coat of
varnish. It was almost too shiny for her liking, shiny like the wood paneling on the
inside of the smoking car on the train—not the kind of shiny she would prefer. The
floor, pink marble, brought to mind veins crisscrossing on pale skin…her eyes
looked down then to the staircase rail upon which she leaned. It was thick marble
upon rose-window patterns wrought in iron. This combination, of thick marble and
thin iron, she found unbalanced.

And then there were the stairs themselves. White marble, with inlays on the
side of blue lapis lazuli and reddish carnelian—a lovely contrast, but already, she
could see it getting chipped over time, with enough shoes stepping on and over it.
The curve in the stairs—it made for grand sweeping entrances, surely, but what if
people entered in a group of three and someone tripped?

Her eyes went from stairs to her husband, who stood by her. His glance was
not critical on chandeliers or staircases, but rested instead on her eyes, waiting for
a reaction.

“What do you think?” he asked with a smile.

Off-center chandelier, blemished angels, too-shiny paneling, odd pink


marble, unbalanced stair rail, inlay that you know will get damaged, dangerous
stairs—but…

“It’s perfect,” she said, and smiled.

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