Light Up My Life

Finally!

Finally the old  gaudy chandelier we inherited with the house is no more! It was oh so not our style and from the moment we moved in I knew I wanted to replace it. Replacing it was not as easy as I thought it would be though since picking a new fixture proved to be difficult. It’s hard to pick something like that when you are starting from ground zero and have no idea what exactly you want. So how did I narrow it down? Pinterest!
I looked through pictures of kitchens that I loved enough to pin and I quickly noticed a theme. I am drawn to kitchens with a “farmhouse” or “cottage” vibe. I still like things to be modern with clean lines, but with a hint of traditional. I quickly realized that  a large lantern over the table would be perfection. But which lantern? I searched for awhile landing on these lanterns that might fit the bill:

But as I narrowed it down I realized that I wanted clear non-seeded glass and I liked a square shape to dining room lanterns.

And then I found this one:

Perfection!

It arrived on my doorstep last week and my first thought was “It’s too big!”. But I told myself that it was just carefully packaged in a large box and that there was no way the actual lantern was that big. Then I opened it, and my first thought was “It’s too big!”. My fears were confirmed by my husband and brother-in-law who laughed as I held it up and joked about it being a small apartment we could move into!

The next day I took it out of the box again just to hold it up and see what it would look like in the space, but instead my brother-in-law proceeded to begin hanging it for me and I just let him go ahead and do it, regrets be damned! The moment he hung it up I thought it was absolutely perfect. It was just what I had envisioned and I love it’s size in the space. It finishes the dining room perfectly and I love love love it!

 

By a funny coincidence, the same week that the lantern arrived I found THE PERFECT CHAIRS on Craigslist. I was not hunting for kitchen chairs. I was ok with our black kitchen chairs even though they were from Wal-Mart and not exactly sturdy or nice and some of the brackets on the backs were already starting to break. Still, it was not on my list of needed furniture, until I saw the ad and knew that they had to be mine, even if I had to drive an hour to get them. So drive I did, and they were sooooo worth it! They are Restoration Hardware chairs in Silver Sage color. RS doesn’t make this line any more! There are two captain chairs like this for the ends of the table and then the four side chairs have no arms. They are the perfect grey/blue/green that I love and they tie in with the dishes on the shelves in a beautiful way.

So with the new lantern hung, I decided that we should put the leaf in the table on a permanent basis so the table would be larger to balance out the room with the larger light fixture. With the leaf in the new chairs fit nicely though I don’t yet know how I feel about all the chairs on one side and the black bench and black high chair on the other. We will see, may need some tweaking in the future.

So that is how the dining room is progressing and here is how it will likely stay for awhile! What do you think? Would you drive an hour for those chairs? What kind of dining room light fixtures are you digging these days?