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Sunday, April 26, 2015

New house: Let the transformation begin!

Furniture is ordered and should be here in six weeks or so. A decision has been made about new countertop to replace the gold and black "flipper's choice" granite, and someone will be out this week to measure. After looking at countless paint chips and putting swatches on the walls, a color has finally been selected, and a painter has been chosen after taking numerous bids. It will be a few weeks before she can start the job, so rather than just sit around waiting, we decided to start replacing light fixtures, since the ceilings don't need new paint.

First up were the simple, flat ones that we want to fade away into inconspicuousness...a couple in the kitchen, one in the entry, and one in the hall. (We had considered something a little fancier in the entry, but we decided that we didn't want it to compete with the dining room fixture.)


lowes.com

The sputnik went up today in the dining room, and the transformation was amazing. Here's the "before" fixture:




And here's what the dining room looks like now, sans gold leaves and teardrop. Picture it with white beams and white walls à la the swatch underneath the windows...and furniture.






This is the 35" sputnik I told you about in an earlier post that sells for less than $200 at Lowe's. As it comes out of the box, it combines the familiar mid-century style with trendier Edison bulbs, which will look good with my daughter's color palette of dark blues and golden yellow. Of course, the bulbs can be changed if they decide on a more traditional sputnik look. If you want a lot of bang for your buck, you can't go wrong with this fixture.

9 comments:

  1. Wow, it looks great! Huge impact in that room.
    How is the glare from the Edison bulbs? I am bothered by them, even though I love the look.
    I'm thinking it must not be a problem at that height?

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    1. We have them on a dimmer, and we keep it turned down, because that many Edison bulbs put out an incredible amount of light when turned all the way up. We've found that to be true of all the vintage multi-bulb chandeliers we've had in the store, no matter the type of bulb. In fact, we had one that put out so much heat you couldn't even sit near it. Overkill, for sure. I have a feeling that eventually these will be changed out in favor of smaller, lower wattage ones with a more traditional sputnik look.

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    2. That look is outrageously cool. Your photo looks like it came out of AD. I love the mix. I have a lot of the bulbs in my cabinet, but they hurt my eyes. I had them in the guest bath...ouch, it was just too much. I have dimmers on all the chandies but not on the cage pendants. I will try adding the dimmer...I hate to lose the look!

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  2. The Sputnik looks awesome in the dining room. Can't wait to see how well it goes with the mcm furniture.

    So have you changed your mind and decided to keep that small twin ceiling fan? (:

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    1. It's going to be hard to let that ceiling fan go, but we're going to bite the bullet. :)

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  3. The Sputnik looks fabulous; unfortunately the only room with ceilings high enough to fit and balance it is: the bedroom. The dining room has a low profile, and I've been looking for something appropriate since I bought the place in 2008; the huge plastic monstrosity that was here when we moved in may have scarred me for life.

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    1. You'll have to describe the "huge plastic monstrosity" in detail someday. It might make me feel better about the dual ceiling fan with the freakishly small blades. :) Finding just the right fixture really can be challenging sometimes, since scale is so important. I think you can almost get away with a piece of furniture that's too large or too small more easily than you can something that's suspended from the ceiling.

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  4. Love it! And love Lowe's, too. I found a few light fixtures there that were the look I was going for at a fraction of the price.

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    1. I have to admit that I was shocked to find such a large sputnik at Lowe's for such a low price. I've found other great bargains there, so I don't know why I was surprised.

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