Kitchen Lighting Part 2

Next up, getting the pendant lighting put up.  I think that's the major element our kitchen was missing.  To me it fills in the empty space between the ceiling and island and almost creates a separation of the kitchen from the family room.  The pendant would be mounted where the former recessed light was.  To make things a little easier, we opted to replace it with something that has one connection box with several pendants attached instead of drilling more holes to hang individual pendants.

We found a pendant fixture in Lowes that would do the trick.  We went with a pendant bar in nickel and blue crackled glass pendant shades.  Problem is, the can light left a hole that is seven inches wide and the bar for the pendant light is only five inches wide.  

This bar is not going to cover that huge hole.  What to do, what to do?  After searching online, I found several videos where we can add a box to the gaping hole and just patch around it.  We used a ceiling brace similar to this.  It went in between the ceiling joists and you twist to tighten it.  The teeth on each end grip into the joists.  This gave us the light box we needed  and the support to hold the light fixture.

After this was in, we patched around this hole and the other holes left from the florescent light boxes.  We used this method to patch the holes using leftover drywall pieces and pieces of wood cut to size.

Using the instructions for the pendant fixture, we mounted it to the ceiling.

Love the pop of blue the pendants add to the room.  A coat of ceiling paint left to go and this project is complete! 

See part one of the process here. 



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Dreaming...

I can't think of anything more dreamy at Christmas than the gorgeous Château de Moissac-Bellevue!

Can you imagine how gorgeous this place would be decorated for Christmas?!  Someday I'm going to walk through this gorgeous chateau!

Does anyone know if they allow tours?

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This home belonged to a noble family who resided in Provence; the 17th century Chateau was used mainly for relaxation and peace.  I can't think of a more perfect environment!

... what do you want for Christmas?

Countdown To Christmas: Snowman Advent

The kid has been asking about Christmas.  The Toys R Us book came a few weeks ago and I can't tell you how many times she's looked through it and told me how many things she needs from it.  Really?  A four year old needing a three story Barbie house?  I guess.

Since she's so excited this year, I decided to let her make her own countdown calendar.  I like the one from last year but we really didn't put it to use.  We didn't stick with the activities and ended up in the closet.  So here's what I came up with. 

I traced two circles from poster board and glued them together.  She glued on googly eyes, a nose, a hat from scrapbook paper, and drew on a mouth.  Simple and I feel better that this one will actually get used daily.  I hung it on the refrigerator for easy access.

Each day, starting with December 1, a cotton ball get's glued on the day's number.  By Christmas eve, the snowman will be full and fluffy and the next morning is Christmas.  I explained to her how it would work and she immediately asked if was Saturday yet so she could get the first one on.  Yes people, Saturday is December 1st.  I can't believe it either.  

How are you counting down the days with your kids?

 

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Simple Traditions...

Here are a couple of silly pictures of us cookin' it up at Thanksgiving.

One thing we love to do is have people over and eat eat eat!

Wishing you a wonderful week full of Holiday cheer!

Kitchen Lighting Part 1

Since we made the move to have the secondary bedrooms overhead lights installed, we decided to go ahead and get the kitchen lighting done too.  Ever since we moved in, I've wanted recessed lights around the room and pendants above the kitchen island.  We had two humongous box lights and one recessed light in the middle.  I never understood the thinking of the contractors and why only one recessed light was installed.

First step was to remove the box lights and put in the new recessed  lights.  We went with a five inch recessed light kit from Lowes.  I didn't want anything too large.  

I had already marked where I wanted the recessed lights to go.  There would be six total.  The goal was to keep the two center holes where the box lights were and add four more holes for the other lights along the outside.  

Things don't always go according to plan.  The hole closet to the family room was on a beam and the can couldn't be put inside.  This meant moving that light about four inches back.  The hole near the back wall was next to a gas line.  We wanted to stay clear of that and just moved the hole back.  The other four lights were lined up accordingly.  The center recessed light was removed to make way for pendants.

The instructions for installing the light kits was pretty easy and we had a friend that knew electricity to come help with the wiring.  The kit comes with a template to trace the hole onto the ceiling and the wires connect right into the fixture.  Once the first light was in, putting in the others took no time.  

The light in the kitchen now is already more even and natural.  No more harsh white brightness.  Those box lights should have been gone a long time ago.

Next step, pendants!

Happy Holidays!

... a little Christmas inspiration to get you in the mood!

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Have a wonderful week!

Fun Holiday Ideas...

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to shift our minds to Christmas!!!

It's so crazy how fast the Christmas season seems to come; It feels like we were just sitting down to turkey and then... whoosh... I'm setting up Christmas decor!

Check our these fun ideas by Affari: 

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I love the pewter flower pots/candlesticks idea!  It would be beautiful for the Christmas Holidays!

Check out their catalog!

Happy shopping everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Here's wishing you and your family a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Be thankful for everything and everyone in your life.

And oh yeah...don't eat too much, I know I will!

 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving!!

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