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Use antler lamps to add true rustic charm in your home decorating. Much more than average home lighting, antler lamps bring character to your home. If you live in a mountain cabin or western style home, the elegant appeal of antlers with their beautiful shapes and variety of natural color will give your area the unique rustic feel you are hoping to create.

Ranch owners as well as those constructing modern log homes have chosen antler lamps for years as the ideal rustic lighting to accompany their western home look. Because of the natural design of antler lamps and chandeliers there is a natural charm in the antlers themselves that wonderfully accompanies any form of southwestern furniture. There is something special about antler lamps that ties in every element and gives off a sophisticated country feel within the room. Antler lamps have a unique quality about them that easily adds rustic beauty in any environment.

Antler lamps also accompany many other western accessories in home decorating. In the Northwest or “north woods” antlers may be put on snow shoes and complimented with rawhide lamp shades to fashion unique wall sconces. The light colored wood and rawhide lacing of the snow shoe, together with the leather binding and warm glow of the hand stitched shade, make it a perfect combination. Weather you decide to adorn your antler lamp with southwestern light rawhide shades or country style dark rawhide lampshades, the option is yours and the outcome will be fabulous.

Smaller antler chandeliers are sometimes made from whitetail deer antlers while large chandeliers sometimes have several tiers of huge elk antlers. Weather your home is large or small an antler chandelier will bring the old west home.

In a small town in Wyoming, the town square is adorned with arches created from Elk antlers. It is definitely unique and you can achieve the same spirit with antler lamps. Small lamps are fashioned from whitetail deer antlers while large chandeliers may have tiers of elk antlers with rawhide lampshades. One of the most distinguishable lamps is created with moose antlers, recognizable with their great dark palms and beautiful dark rawhide lamp shades.

Every year, organizations like the Boy Scouts will search for the prized sheds. If you ever discover antler sheds outdoors, it is an incredible occurrence. Antler lamps enhance that same look in your home and can alter your home’s ambiance in a unique way.

Antlers are found in different conditions that are graded like rare coins. The best quality is awarded an “A” grade. The grading scale, indirectly, has to do with the length of time the sheds lie exposed before they are found. The longer they are left in the wild, the more they deteriorate. New antler sheds will be dark brown in color. Sheds that are not found soon will begin to fade in the sun until they are a chalky white. Another reason they loose their value is because of chew marks from small animals and stains from wet ground or moss.

There are also varying techniques for making the antler lamps themselves. Some lamp makers use glue to hold the antlers together. Others may join them together with rawhide lacing for a western look. And some of the most appealing antler lamps may include a combination of glue, screws and lacing, with the holes closed up for a natural look. High end lamps will almost always use rawhide lamp shades.

Each antler is a little varied than any other, so each antler lamp is unique and is absolutely fabulous for rustic lighting. Give antler lamps with rawhide lamp shades a place in your home decorating and you will love the results.

Craig Chambers is the director of Mission Del Rey and offers free tips online about buying antler lamps for rustic home decorating. For more information visit http://www.missiondelrey.com