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I’m taking a brief hiatus from our all-encompassing flooring installation to do some research on light fixtures.
When moving into the “UD” house, you couldn’t walk 5 feet without hitting your head (ok, I’m too short, but Scott would) on an ugly, dusty old ceiling fan. The three that were in the kitchen and dining room (seriously, there were TWO in the kitchen – ???) were out the door as fast as they could go. They really helped to show the value of painting our ceilings, however.
The fans that we removed were replaced with temporary eight dollar bubblegum-shaped white ceiling lights. They don’t do much design-wise, and they certainly don’t provide enough light in the kitchen, but they are good enough for now.
Giving myself time to think about what I want in these areas has been both a good and a bad thing; I’ve seen how many options I have (good), but…
I’ve seen just how many options I have.
Lately, I’ve really been into the large decorative shades I’m seeing in many design mags, such as this fun print:
I think these kinds of drum shades could really “go” with the decor that will be put into the house, but I’m also loving the look of round, modern light fixtures as well:
Even though they are beautiful, I simply can’t imagine it in my own home. Could I pull it off? Is it worth it?
Whichever way it turns out, there will be a vast improvement by getting rid of the obnoxious fans. The first item that we’ll need to fix is to find a way to get the overhead lights to actually work via switch instead of using a pull cord. As they are now, the bedrooms all have ceiling fans, and they don’t connect to the light switches when entering the room. Thank you, crazy builders. I don’t know how you realized that I can’t possibly need to turn the light on from the door (say, in the dark), but you’ve really hit the nail on the head, here. Bravo!
Someday, when we’re not tripping over saws and knocking over pieces of laminate, we’ll be able to shed some new light on our beautiful new floors. That must be why I’m daydreaming about them… those ceiling fans just don’t do the floor any justice!
Both of those lamps are pretty, but it's hard to know what to pick without seeing your room and the decor you have. Do you have any pics?
BTW, I just spent some time looking through all your blog posts. I feel like I could have written a lot of them myself as we fix up our 70's house!
I love that trellis linen drum shade! Thanks for sharing – I need to pick out new lighting when we move. Great blog! Look forward to coming back for more tales of your remodel. Just became a follower.
My lighting ideas are pretty much for the rooms throughout the house, but the decorative pendant light could go in my dining room (maybe). See the “House Tour” page for views of every room in the house!
Thank you both for stopping by, and for following the blog!
I completely understand about the dated ceiling fans! We inherited several when we bought our house (the tacky brass kind), and we even have one in the master bathroom. I guess the previous owners installed it instead of an extractor fan. Crazy people. Being from the UK, I am not used to seeing ceiling fans everywhere, but my hubs is a big fan (pun intended). Last year, we installed a large updated ceiling fan in the master bedroom: http://amyhogan.com/blog/renovation/?p=1191. Luckily, we have a vaulted ceiling, so the fan doesn't “intrude” into the room.