Front Hall Lighting Vote Reference Posts

As my friend Amy aptly pointed out, some reference images for the front hall might be helpful for you in considering your lighting preference vote...

Here's a post with images of the front hall minus the wood floors/runners.

Here's one of the floors/runners in the hall so you can piece together the two to get a sense of the look/colors/feel of it.

Is this helpful? Should I just take a new photo later?

Reminder (so you don't have to scroll around a bunch) - these are the two lighting options up for the vote:

 

Please Vote

Forgive this momentary deviation from the bathroom update (more coming on that after this next weekend)...

Last weekend, whilst buying supplies for the second bathroom at Home Depot, I spotted two light fixtures I'm now considering for our entryway. I had originally planned on trying to spruce up and refab the chandelier that was left for us by CrazyDecoratorFormerOwner, but I've since given up that plan, because I just don't like that chandelier enough to invest in it. That said, I'd love some input on these two choices we're considering:

Option 1 - a rectangular cube pendant in white glass:

Option 2 - a bowl pendant in clear glass:

Both are simple and clean, and the price is right... so, what do you think? Any preferences or strong opinions? Do you hate them both, or love them equally? Throw in your two cents -- didn't you know this is now an interactive home update adventure?!

Thanks in advance!

We Love Lamp(s) and Other Random Stuff

I apologize for the slight lapse in HSS postings... we've been enjoying a much-warranted lapse in projects since the floor is finished (both because we *deserve* to enjoy a weekend here and there without working, and because we *need* to save money again). In the mean time, there has been a shift in focus to simple updates and sprucing's up.

Last weekend involved a venture that will never again be repeated: a solo trip to IKEA. Yes, I went to IKEA... alone. This was a stupid idea from the get-go, and I knew that. I called and/or texted nearly everyone I knew didn't have plans to see if anyone was up for losing their mind along with me. No bites. So I decided that I'd just suck it up and go anyway - we had a little running list of things to look for/hopefully pick up there. This list included, among other miscellany: runners for the hallways, another dog-tail hook (as seen here), and lamps -- two lamps, to be precise.

For any friends of ours reading this who have commented either to me or behind our backs about how dark Dave likes to keep the house, you'll be pleased to know that it was Dave who said, "you know, I think we need a floor lamp for the living room." There was fist-pumping in victory going on inside my head, but I calmly said, "Oh, really? Yeah, that's not a bad idea." And I'd also recently concluded that our existing table lamp in my little reading corner also didn't really fit, and it needed to go. So, deep breaths in, and off to IKEA I went.

I was at IKEA for FOUR AND A HALF HOURS. This was not because I had that much to do there. It was almost exclusively due to the anxiety-related wandering that came from feeling overwhelmed with having to make IKEA decisions without any input. I found the few aforementioned "miscellany" quickly, as well as an art-and-frames request for my SIL, and then moved onto the Lighting department... where I spent at least an hour. I narrowed down the floor lamps to three, and then called Dave to look them up online, and we picked one. Then I picked a table lamp in a similar chrome base, and spent the next 40 minutes having lampshade anxiety. I called my SIL and mother for consults, and texted three friends. Ultimately, I nervously came to a conclusive choice and, voila, two lamps were chosen. I'll show you the lamps before I tell you how I spent the next 45 minutes of my IKEA experience:

(floor lamp! yay! and p.s., how cute do those little stools I found look with little plants on them?!)

(pretty impressive shade for such a dramatic selection process, eh? don't judge me if you've never been to IKEA alone.)

To conclude this tale of why never to go to IKEA alone, let me tell you about how I finally found our third dog-tail hook. I recalled from the last time I bought these that I found them in a giant bin of at least 800-45,000 different-colored dog-tail hooks somewhere downstairs near the registers. So, I saved this item for last. I went downstairs and found my Lack shelves (see above photo - they don't have an actual home yet, but I'm sure you'll see them unpacked and on a wall in an upcoming post) on the self-service shelves, and searched through the rugs--no runners came home with me, but I did pick up a little kitchen rug that looks good... see:

(dark blue stripes if you can't tell)

I browsed the plants and planters, but nothing struck my fancy, and all the while, I hadn't seen the bin-o-dog butts. Finally I gave up and waved down a yellow-shirted man. "This is going to sound odd, but you used to carry these wall hooks that look like the back end of a dog," I said with eyebrows raised in mild embarrassment. "Hmm..." he scratched his scruffy chin. "Yeah, well, if we have them, they'll be on the second floor in Home Accents. But, we discontinued everything that has to do with animals." What? What does that even mean? "I'm sorry," I said, "everything? These aren't for animals," I explained. "I know," he said matter-of-factly. "You still have them online, I checked before I came," I said knowingly. "Oh, well, then maybe you should just buy them there," he said and walked away. I'm not kidding.

Well, I was determined. I got myself onto the elevator in spite of my parched throat and slowly-creeping-in headache, an obvious symptom of too much time alone in an IKEA. I got off on 2 and went straight to the map of the floor. I located myself and then Home Accents and started making my way back around the floor. But for the life of me, I was walking in circles. No dog butts. I finally found another friendly employee and made my same awkward request. "Oh, yes! If you go directly across to the opposite side of the floor from where we are now, when you see the mirrors, they should be in a giant white bin on your left. And if they're not there, I'm sorry we're all out." OHMIGAWD. If they weren't there, I was going to hurt someone.

So off I went again, and sure enough, there were the mirrors, and sure enough, on my left was a giant white bin of dog-tail hooks. Red, orange, and hot pink dog-tail hooks. I was not dismayed. Just as I recalled, there were somewhere between 800-several thousand hooks in this bin. I dug in elbow-deep and moved them all around. And there, on the bottom, were two black dog-tail hooks. I grabbed one, sighed heavily, and made for the elevators. I will not add to the story by explaining how I got my loot to the car (since you can't take the carts into the lot, and I had no partner in crime to watch my stuff while I went to find the car), but I made it, and though I'll never again go there alone, I will go back. And all's well that ends well.

(*someone* told me that you should always accessorize in odd numbers!)

Lighting: Part II

And now Lighting Part II is complete! This one was a little more complicated. We had a challenge from the get-go because the build-out of the window in the new kitchen wall (and thus the extension of the counter into the dining area) meant we needed to move the dining room table out from under the center of the existing (wack-a-doo) light fixture. As the dining room lighting was set up with the previous wall in place, this meant that we'd need to either hire an electrician to rewire the thing, or find a light fixture that didn't depend on obvious centering to work in the space. As bonafide DIY-ers now, we clearly opted for the latter. Initially we thought we'd go with something big, and maybe flush mounted to the ceiling, taking up so much space that the true center wouldn't matter as much. But we couldn't really see something that big working in our dining/living area, so back to the drawing board. When we went to Home Depot earlier, we looked at several options that we thought could work, and ultimately landed on something that itself was off-center and could be mounted perpendicularly to the table and dining wall, such that the true center, again, wouldn't be as, well, central. Again, I have to give you the "Before" image as a recollection of where this all started...

(yes... it all began with this stunning basket-o-flowers chandelier)

The new light fixture is so different, and certainly light years more modern. We're having a hard time deciding if we will stick with it, but we're leaning toward yes, at least for now. I think making the leap from 1961 to 2011 overnight with one single home accessory is just a little bit of a jolt so we need to let it set in more! Anyway... here it is from installation to lit:

(basket gone!)

(putting up the bulbs and shades was tricky, actually)

(one up, three to go)

(much better, right?!)

(and just to further prove Dave's handy skills... lit!)

 

Lighting: Part I

I feel like I've been saying "you may recall..." a lot lately, but we've been accomplishing so many easy, beautiful updates, that it warrants recalling the wack-a-doo that was this place when we moved in! Today's installments relate to lighting. Part I, in the kitchen, has already been tackled with great success. Part II, in the dining room, is in-process right now, so I'll have another update shortly. So here's what the previous lighting/fan situation in the kitchen was:

(sorry for the bad lighting... but you can still see it's wack-a-doo-ness)

You may also remember that we joked about it having the tiniest fan blades in the world:

Well, goofy-old-tiny fan has been replaced! We took a trip to Home Depot this afternoon, and found a replacement that, while still small, wasn't as ridiculously small, and is a modern, sharp update for our nearly-complete kitchen. Having never replaced or put together a ceiling fan before, Dave was a little nervous. But once again, he's proven himself a handy handyman, and we have success:

(goodbye ugly oddity!)

(putting together the base for the new fan/light)

(fan: installed! now for light)

(lights going in... and...

(new ceiling fan/light fixture installed and functional!)

Now for the dining room light...