Lighting up the House

Lighting is something I've never really thought too much about until this house. In our current home, we have replaced every light fixture (almost eight years later), with a nice mix of IKEA & Home Depot fixtures. Nothing too fancy, and nothing over $100.

Not in this house. Oh no, everything remotely "modern/retro" enough for the new house is not under $100. I don't know why this shocks me, because it seems if you put "modern" in front of anything, the price jumps automatically. Seriously. Modern toilet paper holders? $44. Modern door handles? $225. Modern king sized bed? $4000. Um....YIKES!

It is also no surprise to me that I tend to go for quality over price, with the mindset of, I only want to buy this once. I want to buy the light I will love for years to come, instead of buying "what will work for now" only to "upgrade" later. My mother brought me up this way, and I can't help working this into every single detail in the house. Except maybe the small things - duvet covers, pillows, etc. It's the big things - countertops, the bathtub, the hardwood floors - that are hard to compromise on.

Back to lighting...

While on our trip to Palm Springs two weeks ago, we were really excited to be able to stop into Practical Props while in Los Angeles one afternoon. We planned it, and it actually worked out perfectly, time wise. We were the only ones in the store, and got to see the lights we have been looking at online for months.  We even found a couple of previously used lights that are going to work well in the laundry room. That alone saved us hundreds of dollars.

So, let's go to the main event, shall we? While I've been lusting after a vintage sputnik light fixture for years, it took Greg a few months of me talking about them to get him on board. And a few weeks ago, we walked into Practical Props and found the perfect 60" wide light for our living room. We are SO excited!

I wanted to share all of our lighting with you at once, and show you how they all really look great together, even though they will obviously be in different rooms. They are from a few different places including Rejuvenation, Amazon, Practical Props and Home Depot. We are extremely excited to have them all on order and coming our way. They are mostly polished chrome, except for a few that only came in brushed aluminum, including both the exterior lights, which is fine, since they will match the new house numbers and lighted doorbell! And the dining room light, above left, is actually in polished chrome, but the only great image they had on the website was the polished brass...which I actually considered, since it is so lovely here!

I know this is a mess of lights all together, but once we have "after" photos, I will be able to show you how they each work in the specific room.