Electrical ceiling roses are basically just a component to any ceiling light that covers up unsightly wires and raw cut holes in plaster. Let's be honest, you'd never get a nice, neat looking finish on your ceiling light if all the wires were exposed and the fitting site was on display. Much like a skirting board, the ceiling rose is an aesthetically minded solution to a necessary evil.
The electrical cable that runs power to your ceiling light is encased within the support, this cable has to run into the ceiling, underneath floorboard and between ceiling plaster boards that are attached to joists and covered up above by timber or steel. Ceiling rose, electrical saviour!
This steampunk style ceiling light has a more industrial feel and an exposed ceiling. Without the ceiling rose and piping this would be a mess or cables and would look unfinished, and no amount of interior decorating could counteract it.
If you're looking at this and thinking that's the perfect amount of exposure for your home then we would definitely recommend you check out our industrial range, because there's plenty more where that came from.
Polymer-based ceiling roses are probably the most popular kind around and you'll find no shortage of them in homes around the world.
The default material once upon a time was plaster, but the weight of them encouraged an alternative to be thought up.
However, if you're ever wandering around any big, grand estates then the chances of finding a plaster ceiling rose are suddenly significantly higher.
Brass, metal or chrome ceiling roses aren't uncommon and they can really elevate the space and make the light fixture look much more modern and expensive.
Regardless of what you're making it out of, they'll all unscrew on anti-clockwise.
Regardless of what you're crafting them out of, generally a ceiling rose will screw on clockwise, and unscrew anti-clockwise.
Word of warning though, if you're trying to unscrew a light fixture that's been up there a long while then it will probably be a bit stiff. Especially if it was left up during apaint job because the paint will create a seal between the ceiling and ceiling rose.
Worse still, someone might have plastered over it! This is going to make it even harder to unscrew. No matter how frustrated this might make you be sure not to try and just yank it off because you might well end up taking the whole junction box off with it.
Hopefully nothing you wouldn't expect to!
Beneath the ceiling rose is the actual circular element which will be screwed into the ceiling. The cable for the pendant will be attached to the element.
The electrical cables will look in and out of a small hole in the plaster ceiling and is then split into its 'neutral', 'loop' and 'line' but that's a story for another time.
We wish we had the answer to that, but the origins of the term are quite unclear. Who decided to describe this, frankly, boring bit of a light fixture as the 'rose' and why 'ceiling rose' and not 'electrical rose'? Some things are destined to just remain a mystery. However, down the ages of European history, the rose shape seems to have been a popular shape to suspend above aristocratic and lordly meeting and banquet tables. If you research online, the rose is or was associated with truth and honesty, like an anti-symbol of secrecy.
Either ironically or poetically, depending on how you look at it, this decorative element now serves the purpose of concealing the ugly truth of a mess of wires.
But all we know is that we wouldn't do without it, lights are our whole thing and we know we definitely prefer the rose to the mess of thorns beneath it.
Speaking of thorns, they're spikey and dangerous, so don't go grabbing them all willy nilly, as with any hardwired light fixture please seek the expertise of a professional and don't risk your well being (or your homes) going the DIY route.
