RIP, Ugly Kitchen Ceiling Light

I was never a fan of the fluorescent light above the peninsula in our kitchen.  It did serve its purpose; it produced a large amount of light. That light, however, only came on when you stood there and flipped the light switch on and off several times until it came on. That was less than charming.  After busting our butts for six months, we were finally ready to show our friends and family why we had turned into recluses, our hard work was about to be seen. It felt almost like a gallery opening.  The week before I had all of the food purchased, chili made up ahead and frozen for our baked potato bar. Dozens of cookies baked and frozen ahead for our cookie bar. I was just patting myself on the back for how on it we were, and how great everything looked.  Of course, my famous timing kicked in, and our ugly light gave up the fight a few days before the Housewarming Party. 

 I, of course, had been looking for ideas for months, I knew I wanted to replace that light eventually.  I really liked the idea of double pendants in there, but that would require us wiring for a second one, which we didn’t have time for at this point.  We went to Home Depot to see what we could find. The pendant lights were very stylish, but at more than $80 a pop, we were cringing, especially since only one would look comically small in that space. We ended up finding a Brushed Nickel Shop light for about $25.  It looked similar to the 1940’s era lights that we saw hanging in kitchens in vintage magazines.  We found the biggest light bulb we could, and headed home.  We wired it up, only to find that they booty piece of the light (I don’t know what it’s really called, the part that covers the wiring and fits snug up against your ceiling) was too small.  Curses, and Home Depot was closed. Luckily I had one of those filler, decorative ceiling tray things that fits around lights. I had gotten it for our bedroom light, which had the same problem. Installing that chandelier was very tricky, and I hadn’t built up enough brownie points to ask Patrick to take it back down so we could install it yet. In fact, I still haven’t added one. I really should do that...hmmmmm…..

Note the Ceiling Patch that Needs Paint

Once everything was up it was much dimmer in there. We do have lights on the other half of the kitchen, as well as half-finished under cabinet lighting that came with the house.  Before we could rely solely on that large fluorescent monstrosity, but now we have to have both sets of lights on. I’m ok with that. The downside was that there is now a large patch of greenish paint where the old light used to sit, and we did not have time to open up the can of worms of painting the kitchen ceiling that close to the party.  Well played old light, well played. I guess that’s what I get for calling you ugly. Repainting the ceiling went on the, “we’ll get to it when I can’t stand it anymore” list.