Let there be light!

One of the fun things about renovating a new house and making it yours is you get to pick out all the fun stuff for it. In our case, we get to pick out a lot beforehand since we're doing a chunk of renovations before moving in. More on our shopping trip this weekend will be coming soon to a computer screen near you...

One thing I have found to be difficult to select is lighting. Obviously I knew there were lots of choices around but I had no idea there were MILLIONS. Literally. I already had in mind what I wanted for the 1950's style house. It couldn't be too modern or contemporary (nothing too out there) but I also didn't want it to be extremely traditional. A nice mix. Am I making sense here? But getting that to translate to reality (and budget) are two different things.

On the list of lighting needs we have:

1. master bath vanity
2. guest bath vanity
3. guest bath fan/light kit (combo deal)
4. pendant for the kitchen sink
5. kitchen light (ideally to go over the island I plan on creating with an old table)
6. dining room chandelier

That doesn't even begin to address the lamps we'll likely need since we have a bigger space and no overhead lighting but that can easily be remedied once I start decorating and deciding what we have and what we want to sell/replace.

For the bathrooms we decided on this. Our options were limited since we had to use nickel or chrome (although I wanted bronze). There is a swivel toothbrush holder embedded in each of the bathrooms that is chrome. No getting around that sucker and it wouldn't hold up well to painting. So brushed nickel it is. The guest bath fan/light kit didn't leave us with many options. Most were hideous at Lowe's but we did find this one that we settled for. We have plans to remodel the bathrooms in a few years so we aren't trying to get it perfect this time around nor spend a lot of money.

I wasn't even thinking about a dining room chandelier and came across this that would work, especially for the price. We had planned to live with the hideous lovely brass one for a while (which I'm pretty sure is a hazard given that the glass globes are dangling precariously from it) but have toyed with the idea of having the electrician switch it out if we find one we like. Heck he's going to be there working on the entire house anyway. What's one more light installation!?  I may continue to search and see if I can find a round version versus one on legs, as I call it. The more I look at this one, the more I think I may want a different version.

Then came the kitchen. For some reason, the pendant over the sink was easy. It was one I have stalked at Pottery Barn for a while but never had a place for so as soon as it was on sale I snatched it up.

 

While that will certainly light the area over the sink, it won't light the rest of the kitchen. And might I say, the light currently in there is one of those large box lights circa 1970's. Ick.

I've toyed with something matching like this or something like this or even these, but thanks to the advice of a good friend who has a great eye, they most likely won't offer enough light for the entire kitchen. So now I'm on the hunt for another option. I've searched online until I'm cross-eyed for hours. Now I'm going to go hunt at a local lighting store to see if I see anything there. Who knows, maybe they will even have a better dining room chandelier! Stay tuned...

Feel free to send links/options my way if you have any suggestions!