Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Another Light Busts the Dust

May 2014
 
 
It's official, I have replaced, added, changed or removed every single light fixture in our home.  That's four years and sixteen light fixtures.  This was not a planned thing, I don't remember buying the house and thinking "goodness these lights are horrible."  But room by room, as we updated the spaces we found ourselves taking down 1970's brass fixtures, 1980's ceiling fans, and sad bare bulbs.  In some cases, like our kitchen sconce, we still had the original fixture but the glass shade was missing and had to be replaced. 
 




With all this time and money going out to lighting, imagine my frustration when I painted the kitchen gray in January and ran into an issue.  The new reproduction schoolhouse light we installed in 2010 was casting a weird light on the space.  The shade was hand painted lime green, which worked great with our old color, but now gave the nook an odd yellow dirty tone.  One day when I was trolling the internets I discovered they made a larger version of the glass shade we already had for our kitchen sconce. This shade happened to be 50% off.  So, for less than $40 I would be able to fix my dirty light issue without having to feel horrible about wasting money on another whole fixture. 
 
 
 
 
As I thought about it more,  I still really loved the shade in the kitchen, it just couldn't live there.  This brought me to the office overhead light, which is our last untouched fixture in the house.  Or actually I should say it brought me to our lack of light.  In our upstairs office (the room we have done NOTHING to).  There is a switch on the wall which powers a mini ceiling fan.  What's a mini ceiling? Let me show you. 
 
 
























It's roughly 3' across, white with gold flourishes and sits about 2 inches above Josh's head when he stands in the space. Avert your eyes from the garish green ceiling to also notice the old owner graced the fan with some paint as well.  Given that the only light in the room came from our two dim desk lamps, it was time to kick that fan to the curb (we actually donated  it to the Rebuilding Center for someone who has been dying for a mini ceiling fan).
 
























 
 
So I ordered not only a new shade for the kitchen, but a new metal ceiling fixture for the space.  I choose the same fixture that we had out in the upstairs hallway which has a thin profile (added height space) and a more clean industrial look. Since the office has  no clear vibe (except the existing barney colors) I figured the lime green shade would work perfectly.  
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bye sad clown fan.... hello new light.  Now if only I could muster up the courage to paint this room...
 

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