I am going to attempt this again. If you follow me on facebook, then maybe you saw my ranting yesterday that this entire blog post got erased. I just had to step. away. from. the. computer at that point. Sometimes when the stress gets to ya....you just have to take a break, and that's what I did :) Today I'm feeling much better. Today the kids are behaving, and haven't trashed the house as quickly as they did yesterday, and the sun is shining and I'm feeling good. Let's just forget about yesterday shall we!
Today I am going to share with you my lighting want-list and see if I can get some opinions out of you guys! I have had lighting on my mind a lot recently. We have done a lot of updates to this house in the years we have lived here....we've also done a lot of wrecking this poor house as well....but that's another post. One thing we haven't done at all is upgrade any of the lighting. Every light in this house is the original light that was here when the house was built. I thought it would be fun to show you what we currently have, and then a couple of pictures of what I am thinking of replacing it with. Now, it will certainly take me a long time to get through all of them....but I have plans to replace all of them. There are a few rooms I didn't include at this point, like the master bedroom and my boys room. I figured I'd tackle first things first.
First up is the kitchen and dining area:
This is the chandelier over my kitchen table. While it's not the most hideous chandelier ever, my tastes have changed and I no longer like this one at all.....and it doesn't hang strait. It has always bugged me from day one.
Here is what I want to replace it with:
Either this one:, without the shades....
Or this one
Gosh I love them both.....which one do you vote for?
Here is the other side of my kitchen. It's just the worst. I just hate hate hate this fluorescent light. It's really tricky though. I have several totally different options to put here because I have no idea what kind of light to put. Ideally it would be several can lights, but I'm not shelling out money to have the electrical re-wired when this isn't going to be our forever home. There is no Island, so it has to be some sort of flush mount, but it's a longish rectangular space, so I wonder if I need a longer string of lights or if one in the middle will do......I don't know...
Here are the options:
This first one is just soooo pretty and it has length to it. I figured that if there was a way to make it closer to the ceiling instead of dropping it down with those two bars on top, it could work. It's super pricey though.
I'm kind of leaning toward this one. It's just fun, and different and it makes me smile. I think it's big enough to work. You can see it here in John and Sherry of Young House Love's entryway.
This is more of a traditional approach. I like this just as much. It's just the safer way to go.
Over the sink. It's just a boring little light that gets dust trapped in it.
I want a glam pendant to hang here.
This one is pretty and it also comes in chrome, so I have options. I like the fact that it's a closed globe, but I'm liking the one below a little better with minimal hardware.
I think I'm leaning towards this one....but something in me is thinking I could DIY this one....but it is pretty cheap....decisions decisions...
This silver one is just GORGEOUS and I would totally put it somewhere else in the house if I didn't decide to use it in the kitchen. I do love it. Can you tell I like shiny things.
Next is the living room/great room, which is visible from the dining area.
We have a big black fan with a nice mammary shaped light shade.
I haven't told the husband that I intend on ditching the fan....hope he doesn't fight for it (fingers crossed) It really doesn't do us much good in this room anyway. Now, if it were the master bedroom fan, I'm sure we'd have a fight. But that's okay, I'm not planning on taking that one out. I'm all kinds of fine with sacrificing aesthetics for comfort when it comes to our bedroom....but this one, it needs to go.
I'm not going to buy either one of these lights specifically, but this is the idea I'm going for. I want it to be HUGE and have a much bigger light fixture than what's inside either one of these. I think this one is going to be a DIY. I just have to find something good at a thrift store that I can use as the light base. Wish me luck on that one. Renaissance woman I may be, but I have never even pretended to wear the hat of "electrician." Scares me even thinking about it.
Still deciding if I want big dark metal loops, or more delicate wire ones.
(link here)
(link here)
Other lights I want to add in the living room:
I may have to paint this one gold....maybe....
The next two are the same light...just different finishes. I could see myself using both finishes depending on getting the room "finished"
Out of all of the sconces, I like this one the best
(link here)
The next area is the entryway. This has a slightly fancy "boob" light. Sorry if that offends anyone's sensibilities, but every since I heard someone call it that, I can't see anything else when I look at these things.....one more reason they have to go.
The entry is very small....I am standing in the front door to take this shot. So anything I put here has to hang pretty close to the ceiling....but I still want it to make a statement since it's the first thing you see when you come in the front door.
Here's what I found:
love all three of these.....
This one might be my fav
(link here)
All of the other rooms (except the bathrooms) have lights like these next pictures.
In the hallways and laundry room, I want to do different pendants. I would go with any of the ones I didn't choose for over the sink or the entryway... and then I also liked these:
Same one, different finish....like them both.
Could totally diy this one
and this one
for my girl's room.....I'm going to DIY a crystal chandelier. I already have the pink crystals for it :). My mother in law bought a big fancy one for her bathroom and it came with both clear and pink crystals.....so she just gave them to me. Score!
For the spare room/guest room/office/ place I keep my daughter's dressers....which is totally NOT done yet, I want one of these cute shades.
That's all I'm going to do for today. I have more house and more places to put lights....but yeesh....I don't know if I'll ever get it all finished. I will say that this was SO fun. I get little twitterpated heartbeats when I see these light fixtures. What do you guys think? Which are your favorite? I'm excited to get started on DIYing some of these.....and saving up for the rest of them.
Have a great day!
xo
Anna
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