We had some damage to the ceiling in the dining area due to an ice dam this winter. The old light fixture had to come out anyway and I decided there was no way I was putting it back up after the ceiling was fixed. It was an old two socket track light much like the one over the kitchen sink, very strange.
I hunted around for the perfect pendant light to hang here as we spend a lot of time at the table, eating and crafting. I think it was also the first major design decision we were making so that weighed on me as well. I decided I wanted to counter all the hard rectangles of the kitchen with a round light.
In my research about 1950s decorating I discovered that it was very common to mix colonial cabinetry in one area with space-age modern in another! So I decided to go for it and get a crisply modern looking drum pendant from CB2. At 20″ around it seemed huge in the box but it’s a big room so I was pretty confident it was going to look just fine.
I bought the lamp for an incredible price knowing that it was fitted with a plug so I would have to do a little work to hardwire it. What I didn’t realize was that there was a very important little piece of metal missing from the ceiling box. So after the lamp arrived, I spent about a month hunting around for that piece of metal, not wanting to buy and install a whole new ceiling box in the plaster ceiling. Finally, I had a conversation with my dad who said (of course), “Oh, I’m sure I have one of those.” Thankfully my dad keeps all those sorts of spare hardware pieces that you never know if you’ll ever need again.
Two days later I was standing on a chair with my hands in the electrical box when my loving spouse says, “I hope you know what you’re doing.” Thanks for the vote of confidence dear. Actually, he was quite helpful, and we were able to get it installed without too much trouble.
I’m quite pleased with the results. Now we’ll just have to get a new table and chairs to go with our pretty lamp!
Tags: decorating on a budget