Ok, so we recently had some work done. Nope, not calf implants, but you’re close…
How about can implants? Also known as recessed lighting. And we went for a pendant injection while we were at it (when in Rome…). Actually the wide shot shows more of the chaos that ensued just to get the room ready for its close up (we removed half of Karl The Sectional and pushed him across the room along with rolling back the rug and covering the floor with drop clothes under each work area).
Can you believe we’re well into year three of living here and we’ve never had overhead lights in the living room (except for one small light that used to hang off-center in the corner). And while we love lamps for ambiance, overhead lights can be helpful to flip on when more illumination is necessary (like for finding that rogue doll shoe that Clara needs rightthissecond!). Basically there’s a reason that Candice Olson champions the whole light-layering thing (some recessed lights + a pendant + a few table lamps or floor lamps seems to be her sweet spot, sometimes with a sconce or two tossed in there for good measure).
And since we used to have two large fans overhead – without lights mind you, just big hulking brown fans that we never used (this part of the house is cooler and has lots of sliders to open for a breeze) – we had two fixture boxes in the ceiling to tap into for the recessed lights.
And magically, with the scroll of a mouse they’re done. And they’re glorious.
We thought about branching off from them and adding a ton more (four? six? eight?) but decided that since there were just those two fixture boxes that existed, we’d live with two for now before swiss-cheesing the ceiling and buying more materials. But knowing that we can always add more now that these babies are wired up is nice.
When it came to making sure those recessed light conversions were done safely, we hired our favorite local electrician (his name is Sean, and he runs S.J. Ryan Electric, who we mentioned during our kitchen reno here).
The cords up in the attic above the living room were a little too scary (not up to code at all) for us to deal with on our own, and the peace of mind of relying on an expert for things that can burn your house down is always nice. But like most DIYers, we were excited to tackle whatever was within our skill set (because we’re cheap like that). Which meant that we were happy to instal the pendant light over the table by the window, just as soon as Sean’s guys got the fixture box centered (it used to be about a foot too far to the left so the old pendant made the window look really wonky).
Sometimes we can move fixture boxes ourselves, like we did in our bathroom here…
… but in this case there wasn’t any slack in the wire for us to move it ourselves, and there were lots of other wires going to the box that confused us, so we had them get things up to code and move them over while they were at it.
It’s a lot like how we hired a contractor to help us open up the wall between the kitchen and the dining room and then did all the drywall/trim/finishing ourselves to save some loot. In this case we grabbed the ol’ baton and did the pendant installation and patched the ceiling hole. Since most electricians charge hourly, the more you do yourself, the more you can save.
Oh and you can also save money by prepping the room before anyone shows up. For this little adventure we:
- moved the sofa
- rolled back the rug
- put down drop cloths
- marked the ceiling for where we wanted things to go
That last bullet is a biggie. Measuring to be sure the pendant would be centered and then marking an x on the ceiling saved us time since we didn’t have to debate the pendant placement while the electrician was here (any long chats while the electrician’s around = cash-money out the door, since they’re on his time).
And after they left, we:
- hung the pendant light
- patched that hole in the ceiling near the back window
- caught our breath
- put the room back together
And then it looked like this…
Of course the giant window makes our pretty pendant a lot more invisible than he is in person (he’s crisp and easy to see in real life), but going from zero overhead lights to two recessed lights and a pendant over the table is such an awesome change. There’s a reason all those people say “good lighting is a room changer.”
When it comes to the whole hole patching shebang, we have a few tips for you…
Hole patching tip numero uno: We use these little hole-patching mesh things from Home Depot along with Crackshot Spackle by Dap (applied with a spackle knife) for a nice quick cover-up.
Hole patching tip numero dos: Don’t stop at one spackle session, I always try to do 2-3 thin applications so I catch all the little imperfections that I might miss the first time (you can sand between each spackling sesh or just keep building it up and then sand when you’re sure you have all the low points filled). Note: you can see most of this process on video here if that helps.
Hole patching tip numero tres: I heard that Magic Erasers were pretty handy if you didn’t want to stir up as much dust as sanding would, so after my spackle dried I gave it a try. And I gotta say, it rocked. Some gentle buffing back and forth against the dry spackle with my only-slightly-wet Magic Eraser filed down the high points and made a lot less of a mess, but I think the key to my success may have been that I don’t mound my spackle (I just try to keep it flush while covering the low points, so minimal sanding is necessary).
Hole patching tip numero quatro: When it’s time to paint over your smoothed out spackle, be sure it’s completely smooth (drywall or spackle imperfections aren’t covered by paint, they’re emphasized by it). You also want to feather the paint out about 12″ beyond the spackled area, just so it’s not an obvious blob of paint on the ceiling (two thin and even coats with long feathery brush strokes works for me).
As for the pendant that we chose, you might remember it from our little lighting collection (we mentioned that we purchased three things in that old post- two of which we still had to hang). It was awesome to finally get it this baby up – especially since it’s now perfectly centered over the table and in front of the window.
I love that the wire and canopy are a crisp white color. I almost looks like it’s floating like a big ol’ sun in the sky.
And as for the third thing that we bought from our collection, that colorful shade found a home on our little stationery desk. Which is also known as Burger’s treat desk since those are its two functions.
It adds more of the colors that you see in the green and blue lanterns on the desk, and the shapes in the shade seem to tie into the shapes in the mirror and the cutouts on the lanterns. It’s a nice counterpart to the neutral choices around it, like the walls, the desk, the chair, the ottoman, and the curtains.
We hosted a little lamp shade fashion show with him. We tried it out on a few other lights, including the floor lamp in the sunroom (which was also cute) but decided to enjoy him in the living room for now. Who knows where he’ll end up though…
Close up in 3… 2… 1. Boom.
As for the cost, this lighting upgrade was $72 in materials (for the two can lights, the trim for those, some wiring and junction boxes to fix a few bad connections in the attic, etc) and around $200 for all of the labor. We usually tell people it’s about $100 to get an overhead light added, so we thought that converting two of them to recessed lights and moving a fixture box so it’s centered (while straightening out some tangled fire-hazard wiring up in the attic) for $200 was a great price. Heck, when we look back at this before picture from 2010…
… it’s amazing how far this room has come.
The only sad thing is that we sat on the sofa this weekend and said “why did we wait so many years to do this?!” Isn’t that always how it goes? Oh well, at least now we can enjoy it. And say pun-tastic things like “I see the light!” every time we walk into the room. Heck yeah that happens.
What are you guys up to with lighting/ceilings/holes/pendants? Do you take the hire-out-some-but-do-what-I-can approach? I think we saved around 100 bucks patching that hole and hanging the pendant ourselves. Sing it with me: “everyday I’m shuffling spackling…”
Your posts are creeping me out lately. When I started pricing out how much it would be to add board and batten to our master bedroom, you guys did board and batten in the hallway. And just last night I was trying to YouTube how difficult it would be to add a light fixture to our light-fixture-less living room. And now here we are…in your add-light-fixture-to-living-room post. Get out of my head, Petersiks!
Haha! But it’s so comfy in your head, can’t I stay?
xo
s
Stupid, unrelated question:
How did you get your chaise cushion to line up?
We have the same couch, and I don’t know if it’s because I don’t speak “ikea” or because there’s a defect in our unit, but the chaise cushion doesn’t line up with the chaise frame. We’ve tried it every which way and we still have white showing from the underneath and the cushion spills over the end. Hmmm…
Oh no! It sounds like a defect. Ours is the right size so it just lines up without much trouble. It does travel out (like it’s sticking out its tongue) from lots of use, but we just push it back into place once a week or so and all is well. Maybe try calling Ikea to ask what’s up?
xo
s
So Crackshot made me giggle. Apparently I am 12 years old. The lighting looks fantastic!
Haha! There are many a jokes about that at our house, so I guess we’re tweens too.
xo
s
Where did you get the light kit for the hanging yellow pendant? I purchased the Navy Baby Metal Strap pendant (LOVE IT) but I have no idea where to get a light kit that looks good with it?
You actually can buy the shade with the light kit or without it on the site that sells our collection, so maybe try calling them and have them charge you a little more for the kit so you can hang it all up together? Hope it helps!
xo
s
Love the new look! Light and bright! I just got a new fixture and shade from YOUR Shades of Light collection – the two tone ikat pendant in graphite gray!!! I canNOT wait to hang it DIY style in my newly organized office this weekend!!
Ahh! That’s so exciting! We’d love to see a picture of it!
xo
s
Where is that mirror from? I LOVE it!!! Thanks :)
It’s from Joss & Main about a year ago! Also they might have similar ones at HomeGoods (a lot of their stuff seems to be in both places).
xo
s
What is up with no one putting lights in their living rooms back in the day?!! I guess they always liked it a little on the romantic side.
We just put recessed lights in our living room and we love it!! Yours looks great!
Isn’t it funny?! We didn’t even realize there weren’t lights on the fans until we moved in and the sun set and it was pitch black in there! Haha!
xo
s
Speaking of lighting…I read in your book that most of the drape curtains are not pulled at night but you use blinds for privacy at night? As it seems there is a demand to see the space at night I’d love to see the ‘night’ setting for your window coverings around the house also. I’m always looking for a window covering that looks just as graceful at night as full daylight and wondered how you guys work that.
That would be fun!
xo
s
It’s funny how much lighter the room looks even though the walls and beams are still light/dark like before. I bet the rug helps reflect some light instead of the wood floors soaking it up. I agree with someone who commented previously, I am hoping to see a difference with some night time photos, lamps vs. can lights.
Oh yes, I bet the curtains and the rug reflect more. We also have a different camera than we used to take before pics so that might explain why so many of them are darker (it just wasn’t as good of a camera).
xo
s
Where did you get that lovely sofa!
Ikea! It’s called the Karlstad (we got the corner sofa and the add on chaise).
xo
s
I just finished having every outlet and switch in my house fixed by our electrician ( they were all almond) . While he was at our house I also had him hang a few new fixtures. I figured that I could do the outlets myself, but since I am not totally convinced of my electrical skills I wanted to call in a professional. It turns out several of my outlets where not the right amps ( is that correct) and many of them had been filled with newspaper ( fire danger much…) So sometimes I really do think it is a good idea to go with a professional. My 1960s house feels a lot safer! As for the small stuff I always think it is fun to tackle small jobs when you can.
It’s incredible to look back at those dark and dingy before photos — you should be really proud! Your two new shades look amazeballs.
Aw thanks Gemma!
xo,
s
Looks so great! I’m sure you’re loving the extra light in there :)
I love the before and after shot – the room looks totally different!! It’s so much lighter and brighter. Love the new lights!
Given that I work for a lighting company and that a lot of my family always has, this post makes me happy! I often feel that bloggers do not stress the importance of good lighting enough. People spend hours choosing the right paint color, the right tile or flooring but if they do not have good lighting none of it will matter because you can’t see it! And even if you can see it, the colors may not look true to the swatch that you spent hours choosing. So hooray for good lighting!!
One other thought concerning lighting, excuse my rant:
I know that often it seems like you purchase lighting through Home Depot or discount stores which I totally understand. Saving money is definitely important especially when you are not sure if this is going to be your forever home. But I can’t help but want to put in a word for small lighting companies like us (Denney Electric in PA). Home Depot among many many other larger companies are running people like us out of business. Luckily, we at least have some very loyal customers that help keep us afloat. Even though we discount heavily (we are competitive with Amazon) and offer very fair prices for the quality of lighting that we provide people are often under the assumption that we will cost more so they default to places like Home Depot. Anyways, I am definitely not accusing you or trying to be negative in any way. I just wanted to shed some light (pun intended haha!) on how some small businesses like us are affected by the chains.
Thanks for your time and for awesome posts like this!
Love the info! Such great reminders. We love our little local shops too!
xo,
s
How many can lights did you add? Over the couch or in the center of the room?
Along with the pendant, two cans were added, right where those fans were in the before pic.
xo,
s
We recently changed our recessed lights (the trim was all yellow and there were gaps between the trim and the ceiling) for these – http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/202240932?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=led+recessed&storeId=10051&N=5yc1v&R=202240932#.UT3-Bhxebng
Holy cow they are amazing! Energy efficient, all-in-one, clean looking. I recommend them to everyone especially if you can get them on sale.
Sounds awesome!
xo,
s
OMG…where did you find the fab dog sculpture?!
That was made by a reader at one of our signings. Is it awesome or what?! Even Burger likes him. Haha!
xo,
s
What a great upgrade. I wear glasses, so for whatever reason (reflection?) uneven lighting drives me nuts! Decent overhead lights are a priority.
For clarification, were those two fan fixture boxes hot in those locations or does the $200 overall cover hooking those up as well as installing the lights? I’m curious because we’ll be adding back lights (that were once removed, patched and cut off from the overall power), and am a bit anxious about the price. Yours sounds almost too good to be true (i.e. I should probably expect to spend more than that. Sigh.).
Ours were hot but we had a junction box added in the dining room with a light switch that had never been there before and it was $100, so as long as there’s easy attic access (our one story house makes it simpler) it can still be that cheap!
xo,
s
Let’s hope. Thank you! I love seeing these little house updates. We’re renovating a house right now, so these posts are totally “my jam.”
It looks great! The lovely yellow shade in the corner looks like its a ‘lemon-geo pattern’… makes me want to sit under it and drink sweet tea. ;)
Awesome! We added a can light to our kitchen this weekend. We already had quite a few that we added during our kitchen renovation about 10 years ago, but we found one spot a little lacking in light. Luckily my husband is very handy with electrical work, so anything with lighting is a materials-only cost for us!
So lucky!
xo
s
We recently got our kitchen remodeled and opted for can lights with a dimmer. Best. Decision. Ever. I had no idea what I was missing for 10 years!
Your lights look great and that before/after is just amazing. Good job, guys!
Did you remove the fans yourselves? If so, any reason why you didn’t put in the lights during that project? Thanks
Oh yes removing fans and switching out lights is much less of a job than sawing holes that are bigger in the ceiling and adjusting wiring in the attic to make it to code, so we capped them for a while and later had the lights added in along with getting the pendant spot moved :)
xo,
s
Looks great! How did you guys re-find the location of the fixture boxes, since you’d covered over them when you took the fans down? Did you re-cut the holes yourselves? Or did the electrician do that?
There was still attic access to them above so they were easy to find and switch out :)
xo,
s
Love recessed lighting! Our living room is in desperate need of recessed lighting and or a chandelier. It’s on the first floor so bedrooms are above it. What’s a reasonable price to pay to have lighting installed? You’re inspiring!
We have never had a two story house so we don’t know! Haha! Anyone have tips for Kelly?
xo,
s
When we had recessed lighting put in on our first floor it ran $100 a light. Hope this helps!
I love the new lighting. It looks wonderful. I am so excited because my husband just gave me the go ahead to start checking out contractors so we can finish our basement and I am so excited by the possibilities. That room of yours in the back is my inspiration! I love how big it is and yet it still looks cozy and homey!
I love this transformation!
Although, my kiddo would be thrilled to have a fan in the house (she’s obsessed) I’d be happy to not have the builders lights that not only hideous but a pain to change the bulbs in!
After 2 years 10months of living in our apartment I finally replaced the globe for our light fixture in the bathroom. Its been a bare bulb situation in there since day one. Since it is an original fixture to our 1910’s building (and my landlord was pretty unconcerned with helping) I had given up on finding a replacement until I came across a link in the comments section on Apartment Therapy, found a replacement globe, and for under $15 (including shipping!) repaired what had been a sore point for me since day one! I can’t believe it took so long and I can’t believe what an attitude changer it was for me about our apartment. I went from liking it but finding fault to loving it overnight!
I’ve seen the light!
That’s awesome!
xo,
s
Love it! I have a lighting question for you. We are currently in the middle of having a new home built, and the downstairs is open floorplan so the kitchen/breakfast nook/living room is all right there together. We’ve bought the Pottery Barn Hundi lantern to go over the kitchen table, but I’m wondering if it’s okay to go with a SchoolHouse light (or bring in some bling in the form of a chandelier-the Pottery Barn Clarissa Glass Drop Chandelier) in the living room? OR does it need to all match since you’ll see it there all together?
I don’t think they have to match, they just have to “go” so if they look nice together (sounds like they do) I’d go for it!
xo,
s
I am actually working on a lighting project myself…I was at the thrift store at JUST the right moment and found a big iron basket-ish thing that was probably an outside hanging basket for a home much fancier than mine in it’s youth….but it’s new life will be a haning pendant light…all rusty and cool and french county inspired…so I got out the light kit I planned to use but it has a BRIGHT orange cord….So I have been spending my tv time int he evenings wrapping the cord in this llovely burlap colored twine…it is a long project but will looks so COOL when done…shall i send you a picture?? YOUR new lights look GRAND!
Sounds so awesome! We’d love a picture!
xo,
s
Looks great!! Could you share where you got that mirror over the desk?
That was from Joss & Main about a year ago :)
xo,
s
Love overhead lighting! I would love to see a picture of what it looks like at night time, maybe even a before and after???
That would be fun! I’ll try to snap a few more tonight :)
xo,
s
So I got 2 sentances into this post before I had some comment. Calf implants… you saw that MTV True Life with the calf implant guy, right? That dude was something else. I still remember him whining, hobbling to the door to get Domino’s after the surgery. Sometime, I wish my brain would just let it all go.
Haha, heck yeah I saw it. Best episode ever (except for the Jersey wedding one, remember that one where he threatens to gut the limo driver like a fish?)
xo,
s
That guy was in-tense. What a lucky bride! Without him, there would have been no Jersey Shore.
True. Dat.
xo
s
I totally flashed back to that episode too! So gross……and so vain…..the guys arms were impressive though! :)
My best, Lynn
Love the new pendant over the table!!!!
Just a couple of weekends ago, we replaced 4 sets of aging, dated, can’t-screw-a-new-bulb-in-because-the-whole-base-dissolved sets of track type lighting with 4 recessed lights in the family room. Then swapped out the brass and dark oak ceiling fan for a plain white one and boom! Beautiful uncluttered ceiling! Hooray! We’ve previously added cans to my sewing room and the kitchen, I don’t know why it took us like 2 years to think of this in the family room when the lights first started breaking.
What kind of bulbs do you have. My sewing room was the first room to get cans, and in the beginning we had incandescents. It got so hot in there that I’d unscrew the ones I didn’t need at the moment – hows that for a way to make mood lighting??? Anyway, as soon as they started making CFL’s that fit our cans we bought 6 of those puppies, and used the same type in the kitchen.
But now! LED!!!! Hubby switched my sewing room cans to LED’s last summer (we had to switch out the innards with a conversion kit) and wow, what a difference! Much truer, brighter light, and he put them on a dimmer so if I don’t need all the light, I can adjust (dimmable CFLs were sooo expensive when we started looking at them).
With the new lights in the family room of course we did the LEDs, and since the family room is off the kitchen, I ended up for successfully lobbying for LED switch-over in the kitchen as well. Funny how a small project can morph into a bigger one! (Now their are swatches painted on the family room, so I can choose new wall color for the kitchen/family room, since we really have to paint the ceilings!)
Whoa, long comment, but lights! They are so important!
We can’t wait to try LEDs! They sound awesome!
xo,
s
Love the magic eraser tip! We spent the weekend adding some recessed lighting as well (we DIY’d them), and this certainly would have come in handy.
http://aridoesdiy.com/2013/03/10/ridding-ourselves-of-the-popcorn-ceiling/
That drywall dust is killer — I am finding it everywhere, closets, drawers, you name it. Thanks for the great tip! We’ll be sure to use it next time around.
I am REALLY lucky and get to marry an electrician in June! We bought our first house together in 2011 and have so far replaced just about every fixture in the house! We just replaced an off-center non-used ceiling fan in our dining room with a chandelier on Saturday!! Talk about huge change, we went from not being able to see our food to a new found light! ;)
That’s awesome!
xo,
s
Am I the only one who has put ceiling fans INTO their home? It’s way too expensive to have the A/C running all summer and it gets so nice at night, we just run the fans to cool the house. We did orb the old ugly one we had in our bedroom, but…
We had one in our first house’s den along with one in that sunroom and the current sunroom! They work great in there :)
xo,
s
But what…??? Kim ya killin’ me!!! ;) I was wondering how I could pull off making our fans look updated and considered ORBing them to death. I have to know how it turned out for you guys. I can’t go it alone…. (whimpers)
My best, Lynn
*Okay I’m officially done comment lurking. :P
Hahah!
xo
s
A different Kim here… so funny because I have been considering changing out my ORB fans put in by the previous owner to white fans that sit closer to the ceiling to get them to blend into the ceiling (already have recessed lighting so don’t need them for light). I love ceiling fans (the biggest necessity ever in south Texas – we even use them in the winter all the time!) but I hate how they can be an imposing presence in a room and was thinking if they were white and closer to the ceiling rather than ORB they would be less of a presence.
Sherry the room looks great! We are thinking of adding recessed lights to our great room, which is also without any overhead lighting.
I had a quick question…do you think your hole-spackling technique would work on plaster walls? We have an older home and all the walls (and yes, ceiling in the great room…the one that needs the overhead lights…kill me now!) are plaster. What do you think?
~Laura
Oh yes. Our first house had plaster walls and it worked great!
xo,
s
Hi guys, I’ve been a follower for 3 years now and I just can seem to get my arm around painting “light and even” coats. Maybe you can record a short tutorial on your next painting project. On a different note, do you guys ever use your sofa pillows to lay your head or feet on? My husband does this all the time and it kind of annoys me.
Oh yes we use and abuse our pillows! And as for a video of thin and even coats, I’d love to make one!
xo,
s
Hi! I have a question about patching that you may or may not be able to answer, but it’s worth a try! In our original kitchen, there was a flush mount ceiling light centered in the room. We recently had an electrician come who used that power/junction box and used it to hang two pendant lights, centered over our island. In it’s wake left the gaping hole where the original flush mount was hung. He had said that we could not patch the hole, and could only use a round metal cover (which does not look very nice). Why is that?
Hmm, maybe he kept it live and fed the other two lines off of it? It’s dangerous to hide live junction boxes in the ceiling (ours had attic access from above and were marked there, so they weren’t hidden, which is an electrocution hazard later if someone’s drilling or something). I would see if you could have an electrician quote how much it would be to kill the power to the old fixture box instead of feeding power from it, which is my best guess about what’s going on :)
xo
s
I think it will look great at night. Cant wait for the night shots. Oh and can we get a closer-up shot of the cans too? (Not meaning to sound dirty at all…lol)
My best, Lynn
I’ll try to grab a few of those at night when I shoot it too. They’re just the basic white trim cans :)
xo
s
Please tell me the “calf implants” comment was referencing the MTV show from years ago where the kid said he wanted calf implants so he could be the “total eye candy package”! My husband and I joke about that all the time!
Heck yeah it was! Best episode ever! Except for the Jersey wedding one where the guy tells the late limo driver that he’s going to gut him like a fish. I remember being so scared for that poor limo guy. Haha!
xo
s
Haha Aimee my thoughts exactly! And I think the wedding guy was from Staten Island. I watched way too much MTV back in the day. I may or may not still watch Snooki & Jwoww and Teen Mom…
Haha, I think you’re right! How could I forget SI?
xo
s
I gotta say, my whiny comments about different styles and ceiling fans notwithstanding, you guys have so much energy and do so much in your house! We did laundry this week, along with a playdate or two. And grocery shopping. That pretty much tapped us out.
You never stop! I can’t believe how much you guys do each week and don’t seem to say, “Okay, that’s enough for the month.”
Aw thanks Kim! It’s pretty crazy to think that we’ve been at this whole blogging thing for five years and we average about 2-3 projects a week – but it truly is what we love to do :)
xo
s
Looking oh, so good, for sure.
Lately you’ve been making some small but significant changes, and in several posts you’ve been wondering out loud, “Why has it taken us so long to do this?” This brings up some stuff for me personally, and I know it has more to do with me than it does to do with you. I just wanted to share, and pass on some of the same compassion that I’m learning to have for myself. You may not even need it (you both seem to have your heads on straight), but maybe someone else can enjoy some of that energy that I’m sending out to the world via blog response.
We’ve lived in our house for nearly 6 years. We have major flooring issues that we’d like to change, as well as paint in some very key rooms. Why haven’t we done it yet? A bunch of reasons. Money (new tires and brakes due this month), time (3 kids all in 3 different schools, just for starters), and the fact that we want don’t always want to be doing house projects (we had enough of that when we were newlyweds, and now we find it more important to spend time with our kids camping or otherwise traveling to visit family).
Why haven’t you done your lights yet? Because you’ve been crazy busy with the book, parenting, and doing all sorts of other energy-consuming things with your lives (running, helping Grandma, etc.). We seem to, as a culture, have an expectation that house things be done, like, yesterday (you guys, with your ongoing lists, appear to be fighting this urge, with a recognition that you’re chipping away at projects one at a time; so again, I’m not saying that YOU have this expectation). But there doesn’t seem to be an equal amount of compassion in our culture for when we fall short of “perfection.”
Anyway, that’s what comes up for me–you all do twice as much in your homes as I do in mine, I’ve lived here for twice as long. Treat yourselves kindly! At the very least, for all you do, you deserve not to sit in judgment of yourselves about the speed at which you tackle house projects!
Aw thanks Kari! So true. We try to remember to enjoy the journey just as much as the destination (a house is never really don’t anyway, haha!).
xo,
s
i bet the previous owners had no idea their house could have looked so awesome!
Love the lighting upgrades!!! They look great, you guys always make everything look so easy :)
Aw thanks Meg!
xo,
s
You need a night shot! So we can see the lights in action!
Will do!
xo,
s
So I’m one of those who has gotten a LOT $$$ quoted for the same type of thing. I am guessing it’s because you already had the ceiling fans there and were just switching out for lights?
Hmm, our junction boxes were already there (and hot) but we had a junction box added in the dining room with a light switch that had never been there before (no wires or box or switch or anything) and it was $100 for that as well, so as long as there’s easy attic access (our one story house makes it simpler) it can usually still be that cheap! Maybe your house has two floors and it’s harder to access things?
xo,
s
Nice work! I used to think *can lights* were the ugliest thing ever – UNTIL we built a house with them. The architect put them EVERYWHERE. I doubted I would like them, but who am I to argue with an architect?
Now that we have lived in our house for over a year, I love them. We have several layers of lighting options to fit whatever we are doing.
In a nod to YHL though we painted the rings to our lights ORB since none of our ceilings are white. Painting them the ceiling color looked too crafty, and our builder never thought that we’d want anything but white or we would have ordered another finish. The ORB adds a nice touch!
Aw that’s sweet! Sounds awesome!
xo
s
Looks great! Love the pendant and everything else in the room! Great color scheme. Well done!
Susan
simplymodernhome.com