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New Light Fixtures and Where the 2021 Project List Stands

Let there be better light! With the exception of a few interesting vintage light fixtures, we have hated all of the lights that came with the house and slowly have been swapping them out. We just changed the flush mounts in our bedroom and office, not only improving the aesthetics of each room but also helping me check off a couple of items on the 2021 project list.

Let’s start with these beauties! We removed super dated, 1980s flush mounts from our room and office and replaced them with these, both of which are black and metallic but two different styles. The black gives a modern touch to our aesthetic and the metallic keeps them in line with the light fixtures we have brought in downstairs. The one in the bedroom – a chandelier from Peared Creation that you can see in the top photo – gives off enough warm light, knowing that we also have table lamps on our nightstands. The one in the office (photo just below) is a metal drum fixture by Bellevue that we got from Build.com and it offers a lot more light, which is good for a multi-functional room used as much as this one is.

Some people are comfortable DIYing basic electrical. We are not those people! And I’m glad we didn’t even attempt to change out these ourselves. The electrician came and removed the old light fixtures and then showed and explained to me what he saw.

In older homes, the old wiring essentially just goes from the ceiling into the light fixture and isn’t contained, which means, if there is an electrical fire stemming from those wires, a fire could easily spread. New wiring has a containment box that would contain a fire before it spreads. Our home is from 1903 and needs a lot of updates, including, as we found out this day, some of the electrical. So the electrician added boxes and then mounted the new fixtures and now we’re safer and these rooms are just a touch prettier.

Replacing these two light fixtures means I can cross off two items from my 2021 project list! Below are my goals for the year that I wrote about in January.

Here’s the list for the office:

1. Add and rearrange shelving to accommodate as much of our stuff as possible. (for office update, see here)
2. Get a new desk since ours is sagging in the middle.
3. Add plug-in lighting so we can see all of our files and books better.
4. Maybe get a new rug and update the window treatments.

Here’s the list for our main bedroom:

1. Replace our bed and DIY a headboard. (see here for this project)
2. Get better Roman shades or roller shades. (that update is here)
3. Install closet curtains instead of doors, and I have what I think is a cool idea.
4. Maybe get a new rug and add lighting to one dark corner.

And a few would love to do but not stressing about it this year:

1. Hire out getting a new front porch.
2. Get a new front door.
3. Start talking to general contractors about renovating our kitchen/first floor.

That’s right! If you made it through the list, then you’ll see that we are starting to talk about the kitchen with professionals. This is an exciting update and – eventually – will be huge for our home! Next week, I’ll share a little bit more on that big topic.