Thursday, February 6, 2014

Finding the Light

As I posted a while back, one of my Christmas dreams came true when my father in law and husband installed a light fixture in our living room.


I still love it, but it is past time to find a replacement fixture for this space. I can't say I have a ton of experience shopping for lighting fixtures, so I am turning to you to guide me in the right direction.

Our house is fairly traditional, as are most of the furnishings, so most contemporary styles won't work. Our ceilings are also on the short side--8'--so a flush or semi-flush mount are probably going to be the our best options since we don't want to run the risk of running into it (Brian hits his head on lights all the time). We also want to avoid the 'boob light'. You know what I'm talking about:

Home Depot - definitely mammary-esque, no?
 
With these requirements in mind, here are a few I'm liking:
 
 
 
Murray Feiss from Amazon
 
I like the oil rubbed bronze finish, the low overall height, and the simple design. My main worry is that it only uses two bulbs and I'm not sure that is enough for the entire living room.
 
Progress Lighting on Amazon
 
This light fixture is borderline modern or transitional to me, but it's not so much so that it will be out of place in our home. The simple design is perfect for our living room, but I fear the shade will really hinder lighting up the entire space.
 
 
Sea Gull Lighting from Home Depot
 
I love this pendant style of light, even though I don't think it works for our living room at all since we have zero room to let the light hang from the ceiling. I'm hoping we can find somewhere else in our house to incorporate this classic style though.
 
Hampton Bay Light from Home Depot
 
This light has good reviews, is very inexpensive ($30?!), and would fit the style of our house. I just worry that it might look a little too cheap.
 
Where do you go for lighting fixtures? Do you find searching for the right one as overwhelming as I do?




7 comments:

  1. I think you need to embrace the boob light. ;) - Molly

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  2. Of these choices, I like the Progress Lighting one the best (and we used Progress lights for our fancy garage basket cage lights, so I can vouch that the brand looks nice in person and is easy to install). I'm always concerned with the number of bulbs a fixture has--I never can have too much light! I love the pendant you have above, but sadly, metal shades don't give off much light at all.

    We were recently considering some flush mount fixtures for our kitchen (went with recessed instead), but there were some nice ones at Pottery Barn. I wouldn't rule out looking at chandelier styles too, there are a few designs I've seen that could be mounted higher to the ceiling that would give you a lot of light and look really nice in the center of a room. Other places I like looking at lighting are Shades of Light, Schoolhouse Electric, Restoration Hardware, Barn Light Electric and Lighting Direct. Good luck with your search! The choices online can be overwhelming!

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    1. Our issue with chandelier lights is that they may cause glare on our tv, depending on how low they hang. I haven't heard of some of those places, I'll have to check out their selections!

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    2. I like that one best too! Like PP said, Progress is a great brand, as is Sea Gull, and Capital Lighting. I shop mostly at Ferguson: http://shop.ferguson.com/search/ceiling-lighting. I had been saving this light (http://shop.ferguson.com/product/Capital-Lighting-CAL3914458-Burnished-Bronze-678153?Ns=AvailabilitySort|0||Primary_Finish|1||Sort_Order|1&N=102+49+3001067+3000267) for TWO YEARS for our house, but it was too expensive. Then I signed up for Joss&Main and shockingly that same day they had a lighting sale and my love was on sale for $150!! Obviously, I snapped it up right away.

      I know you said there's a height issue, but maybe your light could be centered on a coffee table, sofa, or chair so it's not in the traffic pattern? Just a thought :)

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  3. I really like the 1st and 2nd ones (after the boob light) We still have a handful of lights that need to be change (think 80's looking smaller boob lights) or some that don't even have a fixture. Thankfully in the main areas, the prior owner actually updated most of the lights so we'll get to the others sooner or later. Good luck on the search and I can't wait to see what you decide on!

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    1. We have so many fixtures that need to be changed out (seriously, nothing in our house matches), but most of them we can ignore. Since we're in the living room so much, we're really tired of looking at a bare bulb.

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