Is a tangle of beaten-up factory lights now more chic than handmade Murano chandeliers? Certainly that appears to be true in the restaurant world, where vintage or replica industrial lamps have become as familiar as sea salt and artisanal bread.

At the Tunes restaurant in the new five-star Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam, vintage black scissor lamps hang at different levels over the tables. And at the Corner Room restaurant, at the Town Hall Hotel in east London, old ship lights dangle from different lengths of cord; a grouping of three black scissor lamps serves as a central chandelier.

“We’ve seen vintage industrial lights in restaurants for a while now,” says Talenia Phua Gajardo, one half of the Singapore-based design team Makemei, which won awards for its industrial loft interiors at the Town Hall hotel. “In fact, they are borderline overused. But now we have clients who are bringing industrial-style lights – both vintage and modern reproductions – into their homes.”