February 2011
After Christmas I started to become alarmed that we appeared to be starting a trend. A trend of purchasing large items in big boxes and leaving them fully packed in our dining room. Procrastination should probably be a new years resolution. The first box was our dishwasher that spent three months in our dining room before we installed it. Now, we had a very large box containing our dining room chandelier. My parents gave it too us in early December as a Christmas present. Late January marked over a month in our dining room and I decided it was time.
After Christmas I started to become alarmed that we appeared to be starting a trend. A trend of purchasing large items in big boxes and leaving them fully packed in our dining room. Procrastination should probably be a new years resolution. The first box was our dishwasher that spent three months in our dining room before we installed it. Now, we had a very large box containing our dining room chandelier. My parents gave it too us in early December as a Christmas present. Late January marked over a month in our dining room and I decided it was time.
My parents purchased our whimsical chandelier from Pottery Barn. The decision was tough, I looked at thousands before I gave into this one. Most felt way too formal for our small little cottage, others felt to rustic. This one grew on me each time I look at it. It was in no way historically accurate to our house, however, it provided the appropriate level of bling mixed with casual natural appeal. I unwrapped it and realized that all the crystals do not come assembled. At first, I was a little frustrated I was looking at easily 200 crystals that had to be screwed on to every surface of the chandelier, but as I started going about it, I actually appreciated it. We probably used half of what came with it, a girl can only take so much bling!
Josh and I moved out the table, shut off the breaker and went about installing our first big light fixture in the house. We took down the 70's flush mount that I like to call 'boob light' (you know what I am talking about... round glass dome with a shiny pointy decorative metal knob in the center). After this was done, we measured how long we needed the chain and proceeded to remove the extra links. What I mean by this is that Josh attempted to pry the chain open to remove the extra links only to discover that this was impossible. Pottery Barn your directions state "remove extra links until desired length is achieved" I am not actually sure who they thought could do this, maybe the hulk. We pulled and pryed with multiple tools until we gave up and actually cut the links with our sawzall, take that!
After that our next task was for one person to hold the extremely heavy chandelier while standing on a ladder, while the other person wired it together. Mind you this was about 50lbs and there is no real place to hold it given its about 4' around and surrounded by pointy crystal covered branches. This was hard, way hard, our old wires are not secured to anything (no junction box) so they like to slip back into the ceiling if your not careful. Eventually, after about 30 minutes and some seriously sore arms we got it up. Flip the breaker back on and.... LET THERE BE LIGHT. This thing was seriously gorgeous when the light was on. It throws great light around the whole room and the crystals almost turn into mini lights. We were very proud and cooked a celebratory dinner to eat underneath. Our dining room felt completely transformed. Actually pretty painless considering it only look us about 2 hours.
Beautiful light! Love the bling!
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