These 3 Paper Pendant Lights Are Must Haves

Nothing makes a unlit corner or a dining room come alive quicker and with more personality than a show-stopping pendant lamp (or three). These inexpensive paper versions are more than up to the task.

CHIC + CHEAP | It is not a stretch to attribute our current fascination with exotic pendant lighting to the return of the chandelier. After years of living with residential lighting programs dominated by invisible pot lights or tech-looking track, the glittery old-as-Methuselah chandelier showed up a decade ago to re-bedazzle the design world—and rekindle our interest in ceiling-hung light fixtures of all sorts, including these delicious ones made of paper, priced from $5 to $99.

If you were to put the king of laser-cut-paper lighting Tord Boontje’s name on the PS Maskros pendant shown here and above, a lot of design-savvy people would immediately buy into the idea—it’s that good. As it is it, this iconic fixture, for IKEA’s 2009 PS Collection, sprang from the imaginative mind of Marcus Arvonen. We love that a dandelion gone to seed inspired its look and that when this fixture is lit it fills the ceiling and walls with shadows that mimic the dandelion’s seed-bearing parachutes scattering to the wind. You will find the PS Maskros paper fixture at IKEA across Canada, where it’s a steal at $79 to $99.

Speaking of Tord Boontje, the stunning Midsummer Light by the Dutchman is one of his most famous designs. In production since 2004, the lacelike laser-cut fixture, made of a high-density synthetic paper in a variety of colours, was originally an experiment in material, decoration and intricacy. We found the Midsummer Light online at Lamplust in New York, where the shade sells for $71.99.

We first spotted this paper shade last week at Tartooful Design and, given the high-style nature of this tasteful North Vancouver boutique, assumed it was an iconic design by someone famous and that it would probably be expensive. We were wrong on both counts. The Varmluft pendant shade, which casts a lovely diffuse light and can be manipulated to look like everything from a pillow to a stylized wimple (the type once worn by French nuns) is actually from IKEA’S 2012 collection and comes in two sizes priced at $5 and $7 respectively. —C. Rule