I think it’s fair to say at this point that I’ve gone a little light fixture crazy. Just in the last few months, we’ve put a new lantern up in the front hall, two pendants in the upstairs bedroom we’re working on, bought two schoolhouse pendants for a couple of other bedrooms that are still in boxes (the pendants, not the bedrooms), and now these in the kitchen.
Oooh! Aaah!
It’s hard to stop when you find out what a difference a new light fixture makes in a room. I’m just lucky Chris is so handy and can put one of these up in just a few minutes for me whenever my little heart desires.
We’re going about things completely backwards in this kitchen by playing around with all the finishing details first before we’ve even started on things like cabinetry, flooring, and all that. The problem is that I have big plans. Big, grand plans. Big, grand, expensive plans. So that’s going to have to wait. I still want to feel all happy and comfy in my kitchen though, so this works for now.
Once we got the new table in just before Christmas, the old dining room style chandelier that was hanging there before really started to bug us. Well, actually, it always bugged me, but it actually started to bug Chris. So I jumped on the opportunity!
With a big fancy table of my dreams sitting in the middle of the room, it seemed silly to hang something cheap and not so great over it, so we ended up splurging a bit on this one.
Can you blame us? (On a side note: does anyone know an easy way to get those light bulb info stickers off? I don’t want to make a big mess on there, but it really has to go.)
You can get so many nice light fixtures for a really good price at big box stores these days and you can always DIY yourself one too! We decided to treat ourselves (OK, myself) on this one though and went to a local speciality lighting store to get exactly the right one. It cost quite a bit more, but it’s something we think we’ll love for years and years.
We also picked up this really simple pendant while we were there. We wanted something a little nicer than the fluorescent thing that was there before, but we didn’t want it to compete with the star of the show.
The Edison bulb we picked up for it isn’t quite the right shape, so we’ll have to go back for another one, but it’s still pretty cute.
The overall effect. It’s not too bad at all! Just you wait until we get the new counters and sink and backsplash and appliances and flooring and cabinets! Whew!
I’m just happy with some new light fixtures and some pretty things on the table for now.
Can anyone tell me what kind of flowers these are? I bought them the other day and I think they’re my new favorites.
The cats sure like them too. For lunch! Ha!
So anyway, those are my new lights!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.