The Return of the Candle Sconce

"Where fluorescent lighting is best paired with a 4:30 p.m. dentist appointment, a candle sconce creates a sense of warmth-both literal and sensorial-that nothing with wattage could emulate. "I put sconces up to be used, not just looked at," says Stissing House designer and creative director at Ash, Xavier Donnelly. "I include them in any room I want to feel bewitching in the way only candlelight can manage.""

"Enso cofounder Yuria Kailich, who makes candle sconces and other hand-patinated objects from her studio in Brooklyn, describes this trend as an adverse reaction to "a culture that moves quickly and adores convenience." She adds, "People are craving objects that ask a little more of them, that invite them to pause, to touch, to light, to arrange and rearrange, and to return to the same small gestures over time." The candle sconce invites a relationship between person and object-what Kailich calls "small anchors.""

Candle sconces are returning as part of a broader nostalgia for Jane Austen–style interiors, canopy beds, and enduring 'perpetual girlhood' aesthetics. Retailers from niche marketplaces to mainstream brands are offering modern iterations of antique sconces. Designers place sconces to be used, not merely displayed, to create rooms that feel 'bewitching' through candlelight. Artisans hand-patinate sconces to invite tactile engagement and slow rituals in opposition to a fast, convenience-oriented culture. Candles signal rest, reflection, and ritual; lighting and tending candles become intentional gestures that foster comfort, romance, and repeated small acts of caretaking.

Read at Architectural Digest