Industrial Glow - Our Process

Our items are not a product of modern times, ultimately we find them! The quality of manufacture is superior to today mass produced fixtures which could be classed as disposable. Even considering our items were likely once mass produced, the materials are superior, actual craftsmanship has gone into their making and the biggest testament is that they are still in existence and relevant after decades of heavy use.

Our process is made up of four steps Reclaim - Research - Restore - Relight

Undoubtedly the most fun part of the process is finding our products! The buzz of discovering our vintage industrial pieces is a huge motivating factor behind what we hunt high and low to source the best original vintage reclaimed lighting and décor.

The process takes us to many destinations, and we meet many characters along the way another factor making this process probably the most enjoyable and somewhat the easiest out of all the steps.

It takes dedication, persistence and patience mixed with a good eye to find many of our original items and often our items can be very challenging to remove from their original locations where they have remained many decades from their initial install date.

After many hours on the road we are always extremely relieved when our finds get back to base intact.

The hunt does not stop once we have found our products and have them safely in our workshop, this is where the real work begins.

Before we can begin to professionally restore our items, we like to do a little investigation work. We have sourced a library of original documentation including original manufacturers catalogues, brochures, instruction manuals and adverts.

We try to identify as many products as we can this way and try to gain as much information as possible.

Often our products have seen many decades of use in industrial environments often completely changing the appearance of our products from their original manufacture.

This research is one factor in deciding how we would like the item to appear at the end of the process and what restoration techniques we will use to get there.

For us, the goal of our restoration process is to enhance and emphasise the character of our items original life whilst functioning to the current modern standards.

The restoration process is undoubtedly the most challenging stage of the process and a wrong decision or action can ruin the look of an item, this is why we take our time during the research process plotting the restoration path starting with how we want the item to look at the end of the restoration and working back on how to achieve this.

Many techniques are used in the restoration process, all carried out in the Industrial Glow workshop or locally with a select few specialists within Nottinghamshire, the process can be very simple or very complication and time consuming depending on the original condition of our reclaimed items and what we want to achieve.  

We endeavour to retaining as many original components as possible, however existing electrical components are removed from our salvaged and reclaimed lighting and renewed with new electrical components to meet today's safety standards, preparing our original industrial lighting for its new journey.

The result of the long restoration process and our hard work is a product that has a story, a history and previous life, which is visible on and throughout our products. The scars from the industrial background the products have been exposed to have created unique and individual character that cannot be duplicated or imitated.

At this stage our products are ready for a new journey, ready to relight and enhance an interior once again.