My Summer Essential!

Phyllis Décor 9 Comments

Well it’s here—the summer heat! It’s not yet in full-miserable strength, but it’s showing early teasers of the days ahead.

In anticipation of hot Southern summers, Neal and I designed our home to have this one summer essential in every room—a fan! We love air moving, and while it is still a bit cool, we will open the windows and feel the wonderful breezes blowing through the house.

Our bedroom is a very neutral-painted room. The beams in the room are original to the old house, and we painted them white to create a casual retreat. Right in the center of the room is the original model of the Hunter fan.

I contacted the company and got the most interesting information about them and the original fan.

  • Flash back to a blistering hot summer day 130 years ago, when John Hunter and his son, James C. Hunter, are fed up with the heat and stagnant air. They decide to start their own fan company to solve this problem. 
  • James C. Hunter later buys an interest in the Tuerk Water Meter Company of Syracuse, New York, and then the Hunters are able to invent the very first water-powered, belt-driven ceiling fans with whirling blades.
  • In 1896, the Hunters buy out the remaining Samuel Tuerk company and later change its name to the Hunter Fan & Motor Company.
  • The Hunters premier a classic staple and their very first fan design, the 52″ Hunter Original. Still a mainstay in the Hunter collection, it finds its place in modern and historical homes across the country. This one-of-a-kind motor is housed in cast iron, making it historically beautiful as well as wear-resistant. It also uses an oil bath system to constantly lubricate its bearings, virtually eliminating both noise and wear.
  • More than a hundred years later, Hunter has become a widely known name to all, in 1996 purchasing rival fan company, Casablanca, and running it ever since. This is now a secondary label to the Hunter brand.

I have a very modern Hunter fan in my bathroom and other styles throughout the house. Fans are not only functional, but they are decorative as well. If you are looking to bring a breeze into your home, enjoy looking at the beautiful styles of fans on the market today. You can update your room by changing your ceiling fixture to a fan.

Stock up on your summer inspiration with our summer sale deals!

Summer Sale 2018

Comments 9

  1. Phyllis, My husband and I love ceiling fans, we have them in every room except one.
    Now a days they have great designer ones to go with each room decor. We just started
    them on again as it is getting warm here in Northern Ca. and I for one can sleep better at night with our ceiling fan on circulating the air with a light breeze across my face !
    Love your home, its beautiful, Congratulations!
    California Carmel

  2. When I was a kid, my best friend & I were the only ones on the block without AC – we survived with open windows & fans. In the first house my husband & I owned we loved our attic fan – the house we built 21 years ago is a 1 1/2 story & we couldn’t quite figure out how to do an attic fan – we still miss it. Allergies have became worse as we’ve aged & the stupid casement windows we have & the wind make for not as many open window nights as we would like. The AC comes on a lot earlier now than when we were growing up & after 50 years, my friend is still my best friend & we joke about how we couldn’t live without AC nowadays. I love my ceiling fans in the living room & bedroom though – can’t sleep without it “moving” the air even when the AC is on. I love the picture of your ceiling fan in the bathroom – very cute & I often wish we had put one in our kitchen.

  3. So many people sniff at ceiling fans but I’m a fan of them (pun intended). They move the air without blowing stuff over, they aren’t in the way, you don’t have to worry about little fingers getting near them. Even in the south of France, air conditioning is unheard-of–we don’t get humidity and it’s actually easier for your body to adapt to the heat if you don’t go into cool/cold spaces all the time. But we love fans.
    Growing up, my parents put a “whole-house fan” in a central hallway. It sucked in air from all the windows–no matter which side of the house you were on, a gentle breeze blew in. My brothers loved it so much they put whole-house fans in their homes. There is nothing sweeter than the evening breeze in summer.

  4. Well Phyllis, that is something my late husband and I had in common with you and Neal. When we built our new home the summer of 2002, we put a ceiling fan in almost every room! We have very humid summers here in Missouri, but as you stated-moving air is wonderful, even though the AC is on. Grand idea!!!

  5. Ceiling fans are not something you really see up here in Toronto, Canada. I think it makes a lot of sense though and I never even thought about the reverse warming effect. I do however have a free standing rotating fan and I love it…it’s much more pleasant than the air conditioning.
    Beautiful rooms, Phyllis!

  6. Having grown up in New Orleans with ceiling fans in ever room except the formal dining room, I find that I can’t sleep without a fan running. Whether it’s the white noise or the sensation of moving air, it’s essential. In winter, you can reverse the blades to bring the warm air down from,the ceiling.

  7. When I built my “Tiny French Country” home some years ago it had fans in every single room including the baths and utility room. The house was 1500 square feet as the estates where I built would not let me build any smaller. It was always so nice and cool and the fans on the back porch kept the Texas heat and mosquitoes at bay. Your house is beautiful! Thank you for sharing pictures with us.

  8. I sleep with the bedroom windows open every night because in Colorado no matter the daytime highs, when the sun sets behind the Rocky Mountains the temperature falls leaving us with soft summer nights with nice cool temperatures. But, a ceiling fan helps to pull those night breezes into the room and by daybreak we are curled up under a blanket. Ah, summer!

  9. We simply cannot live without our ceiling fans! Only the drawing room and the dining room lack them. The coolest places in our house are the kitchen table and my desk in the study, directly under quietly spinning fans.

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