Lighting

I thought I'd be sharing pics of our new lights a few days ago, but what can I say...this week has been hectic. As soon as I finish typing this post, I'm on my way to the apartment to try to pack up the remaining odds and ends and clean like crazy. Tomorrow the plumber is coming back to replace the leaking bathroom faucets (yay!), and we also have a structural engineer coming by to look at some cracks. Hopefully, it's nothing serious, but our home inspector suggested we get them checked out.

Now, on to the lights!

Dining Room
You might think this chandelier is not that bad, but I promise, in real life it is really ugly. It has some type of marbleized brown finish on it and a tacky chain at the top, which I did not manage to capture in the photo.

We replaced it with a Possini Euro white flower pendant. (I can't remember the website I ordered from at the moment, but if you do a search, it's sold at many places). IKEA has a version of this pendant that's about $100 cheaper, but it does not look as nice. It's clunky, has fewer petals, and doesn't filter light as well. We went to the store to check it out before we made our decision, and the difference was noticeable enough to splurge a little.

Here's a close up of the lovely marbleized finish on the old chandelier. I tried to capture how pretty the new pendant looks when it's on, but I don't think this photo really does it justice.

Kitchen
This "crystal" pendant hanging over the kitchen island was truly the worst. Even the electrician we had out to the house commented on it. It didn't provide any direct task lighting, which you need over an island where you will be chopping/measuring/mixing, and instead, produced bizarre shadows and prisms all over the ceiling. On top of not being functional at all, it was just plain tacky.

We replaced it with a simple metal industrial pendant from West Elm, which by the way, was on sale for $9.99 (the cord kit is an additional $29). It looks 1,000 times better and actually directs light where we need it! I should've taken a wider shot so you could see the light on the island, but my camera lenses are still packed away somewhere.

You can sort of see the shadows on the wall here. And the simple, clean shape of the new pendant is something I won't get tired of any time soon.

Back Porch
The light on the back porch was missing a cover, and it was so bright at night it felt like it was burning my retinas. I also worried it was shining a beam straight at our neighbors' house behind us (an elderly couple who have the cutest little Scottie dog), and that's just obnoxious.

We bought this cheapo wall light from Home Depot (I think it was $12). I'm not in love with it, but it works much better than the old one and looks nice enough for now. We will be replacing that bulb (which just came out of the old fixture) with a cooler energy-efficient bulb as soon as it burns out.

At some point, I'd like to replace an ugly ceiling fan in the living room and a standard nipple light in the hallway as well, but all in good time.

I hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! xo, Mary