Second Ceiling Fan Order

As I just reported, my order with 1StopLighting fell through because they have a ridiculous online shopping business model – listing products for sale that are not available.  After that fiasco, I turned to Amazon.  Well, before that happened, I searched diligently for another source.

The exact model of fan I wanted is AVL56TIT5RW.  Deciphering the model number (a’la meh.com) would result in Avalon 56Titanium 5-blade Remote Wired.  The other model in the series is  AVL56BNK5RW (Avalon 56Brushed Nickel 5-blade Remote Wired).  The titanium model has black/titanium blades and the brushed nickel has maple/light maple blades.  When I visited a local lighting showroom, they suggested I buy the nickel model and buy replacement black blades.  That’s a viable option.

So searching for the nickel model number, I came across a seller on Amazon that was selling that model, but with a brand name of Bala.  The fan I’ve been searching for is made by Ellington, which is a brand of the manufacturer Craftmade.  Searching the internet for Bala fans returns a decent number of hits of products.  It appears that Bala might be a “house brand” for Ellington/Craftmade.  So good for me, I’m getting a high-quality fan that’s been private labeled.  Actually, two fans.

Now about that blade color.  My first thought is that the maple color would kind of steer my design decisions in the rooms to include more wood tones (“more” from a planned amount of zero).  But then I gave some consideration to painting the blades.  A quick search showed that yes, painting blades is a viable, frequent, and very popular solution.  It’s even promoted by ceiling fan manufacturers.

Now I’m settled.  Instead of a titanium fan body, I’m getting brushed nickel (which might even be better for me) and I’m still getting my black blades.  I’m paying a little more, but not paying as much as if I insisted on the original.