Sunday, March 2, 2014

Light Love

We have some bad light fixtures around here. Really bad. I mean, they'd be perfect if the year was 1996, when our gorgeous floral fruit wallpaper was just installed and we were enjoying our favorite episode of this:

 But that time has long passed, and we needed to do some serious light updating around here. Since we were breezing right through updating the kitchen, we started there. We had a charming white light fixture in our breakfast area in the kitchen that just wasn't working for us.
 

We began our search looking for inspiration, when a pottery barn catalog fell in our laps. Funny how that happens. Look at this gorgeous beauty.







We fell in love with the modern, industrial style of it, but the globe was a little too big for our small eating area and the price tag was less than appealing. 400 smackaroos for that bad boy. YIKES! So, we kept a picture of it and continued our search for a smaller, cheaper version.


We stumbled across this light fixture at LifeStyles here in Edmond. This one was the perfect style and size and although it was significantly cheaper than our pottery barn inspiration light, we still didn't love the $170 price tag.


We continued our search and as it turns out, the perfect light was right around the corner from us, at Lowe's. It was very similar to the one at LifeStyles but it was only $118. Score! This one was $282 less than the Pottery Barn light we loved, but it still gives us the look we were aiming for.

We brought it home and immediately turned to youtube aka our saving grace around here. Neither of us had any idea how to change a light fixture but we knew the world wide web wouldn't let us down. So we set up shop, computer in hand. 



Who knew a light fixture was so easy to replace? We sure didn't. All it takes is flipping the breaker (so that we don't die), a little unscrewing here and there, and connecting some wires together. We're really getting this home-ownership stuff down, if we say so ourselves.

Now let's take a moment of silence for our old, outdated fixture. It's currently sitting on craigslist waiting for a new home.

And here's the new beauty just gleaming away.



If you noticed, we also had to swing the chain over about a foot or two. Someone before us thought it would be a great idea to connect the light fixture directly above the walkway to our family room. That was an easy fix though- we just bought a swag hook in the same oil-rubbed bronze color as the chain and installed it directly above the table.


We really love how it turned out and we think curtains will frame the light fixture very nicely, once we get around to hanging some up.



When we realized how easy it was to replace fixtures, we were inspired to do something with the brass chandelier in our dining room. We've seen online how people have successfully spray painted their brass chandeliers (like here, and here) so we thought we'd try it out before spending the money replacing it.

Here's what the chandelier looked like when we bought the house

All we had to do was remove the bulbs, block the sockets with tape, hang the chain outside (we chose to hang it on our garage door rail) and apply 2-3 coats of spray paint. We've read a lot of great things about Rustoleums Paint+Primer in one spray paint, but Lowes didn't have a wide range of colors so we turned to Valspar's spray paint and chose a lovely indigo blue.


We also replaced the flame-shaped light bulbs with more modern round ones, that we found at (you guessed it..) Lowe's.


Here's what it looks like hung up, in all its glory




Let's visit the 'Before' picture one more time for the full effect:

And after a little paint, here's the 'now' pic:

We obviously still have a lot of work to do in the dining room including new furniture (that tiny 3 person table in a formal dining room just isn't tickling our fancy), curtains, rug, artwork, and the list goes on... however we really think the navy chandelier really updates the space. Now what can we spray paint next?....

We hope to have put a little light in your day. (see what I did there)
Peace,
K+D








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