New Entryway Lights
/Since we moved into our house I have all but hated the lights in our entryway. I'm sure that sounds dramatic, but it's true. Lighting is SO important to a space. Light it's self can entirely change the way a room feels and looks and the fixture not only dictates the amount of light a space will receive but the aesthetic vibe as well. Builder grade lighting rarely hits the mark and my builder grade lighting seriously was not doing it for me. We have already upgraded our kitchen pendant lights...
As well as our breakfast light fixture...
So now it was time to tackle the entry way...
Let me start by telling you what about these lights I didn't love.
1) The light that they gave off.
Our entryway does not have any windows, I can occasionally get some natural light into the space by leaving the doors to our office open... but that room is a MESS 90% of the time so that's not an option when we have guests. I've added a mirror and a lamp to try to add some additional light and not make it feel quite so cavernous, but we still weren't quite there. Each of the existing light fixtures had two fluorescent bulbs in them and they actually gave off way too much light. We could have changed the bulbs out to incandescent or LED, but that still would have just been a band-aid.
2) The fixtures were ugly.
There I said it, they were just ugly.... Not to offend anyone who may be rocking these particular lights, but in my opinion a boob light (I'm sure that's a technical term) is only acceptable in a closet... and even then there is probably a better option! On top of them being ugly, they didn't match! One was a semi flush mount and the other was a flush mount. I'm guessing that they were trying to make the vestibule closest to the door "fancier".
When I set out to find the perfect entryway lights I didn't really know what I wanted. I knew that I wanted two that were the same and probably something that hung down rather than a flush mount, but other than that I just wasn't sure. Then I saw this picture :
Source : StyleMePretty.com
And that was that! I had already decided that eventually I would like to do some sort of wainscoting throughout the entry area to help to brighten it up and add some interest and after seeing this picture I was even more sure of that.
So, I set out to find these lights!! They are commonly known as Moravian Star Pendants and many places carry a version of them. I finally settled on these from Pottery Barn
olivia-indo
Then I waited and waited for them to go on sale... they never did. Eventually I got a coupon for 20% off my entire order so I decided to finally pull the trigger and order them! I was excited to receive them the next week until I got an email saying that they were backordered and wouldn't ship for a month!!! So the waiting game began, again. To my surprise they arrived after about 2 weeks.
But then they sat and sat in my office waiting. We couldn't manage to find a free weekend to hang them so I finally begged my husband to hang them one evening after work. I'm lucky to be married to an electrician, so this was a pretty simple task for him ;) And boy was all the waiting worth it!
And the hubby agreed!
These babies really add so much to our entryway! The light that they give off is perfect and creates these fun prismatic shadows on the ceiling. The fixtures can take up to a 60w bulb, but we put in some 25w bulbs we had on hand and the light level is perfect! I love how they are a classic style yet fun and not too serious. I just don't have time to take my lighting too seriously!! I also love that when we are in the living room we can see them hanging down under the arches.
If you aren't 100% happy with a space and cant figure out why or where to start, consider starting with the lighting! It makes such a HUGE difference and it's something that's often overlooked by people. Changing out lighting is definitely one of the best ways to make your builder home unique and individual if you're rocking a track home in the burbs like me!
