Measure Twice, Buy Once - Lesson Learned

Remember how I wanted this awesome light fixture in my new office downstairs?

Well, I found it on Joss & Main at a great price, so I ordered it right up!

The other site I found it on originally had it on backorder for a few months, so I knew I had to snag it quick.

I had about $150 store credit from a return a few months ago and was so scared that this fixture would be sold out before I had a chance to get it, so I quickly put it in my cart, paid for the remaining balance and did a happy dance!

It came lightening fast (just about every Joss & Main order does, that's why I love them so much!) and when I opened the box, I quickly realized that it definitely wasn't as "gold" as I thought it would be, AND I HAD TOTALLY BOUGHT THE WRONG SIZE fixture!!!

cue: palm to forehead

DIY Orb Chandelier Tutorial - Zgallerie Eclipse Knockoff

Jen from Tatertots & Jello and I have been friends for about as long as we've both been blogging. I remember the first time we met... and ironically, it was over a lighting fixture exchange!

Who knew that over 3 years later we'd become the best of blogging buddies and life-long friends (???) It's so crazy how life works, isn't it?

From painted chevron rugs to Valentines day subway art and even a little help with a bedroom makeover (soon to be revealed on Jen's blog), I've had a BLAST working with this super-talented-creative-mega-mind friend of mine, and hope we NEVER stop collaborating on awesome projects together.

All that being said, about 2 months ago Jen and I were laying around in a hotel room, during a blogging event, talking about things we wanted to still get done in our homes, and we both mentioned how MUCH we really wanted one of those cool orb chandelier lights that we kept seeing around in all the high-end stores. If we saved, we knew we could probably afford one, but neither one of us felt like spending over $500, or DOUBLE THAT on a single light fixture was really the best place to put all of our hard earned cash. 

So what do you do when you can't find something that you WANT, at the price you NEED it to be at? You MAKE IT of course!

I definitely have to give Jen all the credit when it comes to material choices and basic construction of this awesome DIY orb chandelier.

PS: This is my "things are gettin' serious here" face.  ack!

Jen and her smarty-pants hubby Jeff figured out how to get the orb shape we needed, and then once we had the basic idea down, Cason and I were off to figure out how to construct our own... in a smaller version than Jen's with a little bit of a different twist.

Here's how we did it:

We bought our chandelier base from Home Depot. It's called the Charleston 6 light chandelier and it was $95.00. (Jen's was a bit larger and ran about $120.00)

Light It Up, Up, Up! - One Ceiling Fans Story

Over the past 4 years as our little family has gone through this somewhat dramatic "style-shift" in our home, from deep tan and brown glazed walls, red accents and a sort of Tuscan decorating vibe, to a brighter, airier more personalized/stylized, yet functional look with whites, grays, blues and even golds (!), I can't help but get really excited when I look around and realize that more of my house is actually now how I want it, than how I don't. (eeeek!)

Now that our home sees less and less construction projects, and more and more finishing touches, it makes the butterflies soar in my belly. Will we ever be D.O.N.E, done?... nah. I'm too fickle and indecisive to ever say that I'm going to be "done" with any home I live in. Design is always and forever changing, so in some ways our home(s) probably always will be too.

Today though, I couldn't help but share the story of our living room ceiling fan, one of the very last "old fixtures" in our home left.

Yes... you read that right, I said ceiling fan. And yes, it has a story.

When we first moved into our home our living room was equipt with the standard, builder-grade "boob-light" fixture in our open living room/kitchen area. (we had quite the collection of those babies if you remember) We knew the first few days after living here that we needed a fan in the space to help circulate air, so with very little thought, we picked up this dark brown fan on sale at our local home improvement store. Being absolute DIY newbies we grabbed our ladder, struggled for about 2+ hours trying to get it installed and then once it was up, flipped the switch and realized that while we had a working fan, we did NOT have any working lights.

(insert frustrated look and eye roll here)

Cason was so incredibly annoyed with the whole process, that he threw his hands up and told me that we'd just get back to it again another day.

...

3 kids, a blog, 2 jobs, 1 dog and 6 years later, I'm happy to report that we've FINALLY decided to tackle this ceiling fan project again!

(stop judging us).

As I'm sure you can guess, even in those darker decorating days, that big ol' brown, monstrous fan on my ceiling was never really my favorite. It was way too much of a contrast against my nice white ceiling and almost demanded the attention of anyone's gaze when they walked into the room, so I knew that it had to go.  That being said, this entire year I've been keeping my eye out for the PERFECT fan for this space, to replace the one we had, but it wasn't until about a month or so ago while scanning a Joss & Main sale, did I find it.

I've bought a lot of furniture and decor from Joss & Main, but never a lighting fixture. I was a bit nervous, but took the plunge anyway. This particular fan/light combo ran me about $250 (free shipping). Cason and I were both really impressed with the quality of the fan and loved it immediately! The only downside, was that we were missing a few screws that were suppose to be included to attached the fan blades to the body of the fixture. After a quick call to Joss & Main, they were reordered and sent to our house in about 7 days (free of charge of course).

image posted on our Instagram feed the day of install

Once we had everything we needed, the install started. Bad memories of hours on a high ladder, holding heavy fan motors and tiny electrical parts flooded Cason's head, so I just stayed quiet and as helpful as possible... while snapping a couple of pictures of course.

If you want to read more about how Cason learned the best way to change out all of our old lights to new ones on his own, you can read our tutorial on DIY lighting install.

Unfortunately about halfway through the install I had to jet off to a meeting, but got a text from Cason not too long after that, with a picture similar to this one attached.

DIY: Shopping for & Installing new Lighting Fixtures

One of the best ways to update a space, is to add new light fixtures. We've replaced about 90% of our builder grade light fixtures in our home with new ones, and it's really made a huge difference! When most homeowners think about replacing an old lighting fixture with a new one, there are usually two big reservations.

1. New lighting is too expensive

and

2. I don't know HOW to change a lighting fixture.

So today I'm going to address both of these concerns, because they are easily solved.

First, if you've never shopped for new lighting fixtures, and want to stay within a reasonable budget, then here are some great places to look.

Your local hardware store:

We've purchased quite a few lighting fixtures from our local hardware stores. In most cases, you can find a great fixture for between $50 - $200. Last year we were found the perfect chandelier with small drum shades for over our kitchen table, and it only cost us $99.00!

New Kitchen Lighting - Converting a can light with a Recessed Light Adapter

Oooooh lighting.  I'm a bit obsessed with it, at the moment.

I'm pretty sure that we've changed out 90% of our builder-grade light fixtures already, and I don't plan on stopping there :)  Beautiful lighting fixtures add tons of interest to a finished space, big OR small, and if you keep your eye out for great deals you won't have to spend a fortune either!

Speaking of small spaces, Cason and I have been a little preoccupied with this tiny nook in our kitchen.

We lost a bit of steam after we put up our paintable wallpaper and wood slat back splash.  But just lately now, we have been hmm-ing and humm-ing about how to finish off this small space, that has great potential!

First things first, we needed to find a "cool", inexpensive pendant light that would hang down over the sink. But before all of that... we had to figure out how to convert that can light, into a pendant worthy outlet.

Enter in:

 THE RECESSED LIGHT ADAPTER KIT!

If you have can lights in your home and dream of pendant lights instead... then this box will open up a window of opportunities :)