Getting classy in here...

After 5.5 years of living in our house, we FINALLY have a new light in our living room. Our house was a foreclosure and when the people left they clearly took some of the lights with them. They were replaced with these lovely $10 lights from every big box store. Check out how terrible they are in this listing photo from our house.

We have them in loads of rooms, and I hate each and every one of them. I can’t actually find any recent pics of our living room with the old light, because I always intentionally cropped it out. A few years back Paul made me a deal that if I played fantasy football I could get a new living room light, well I traded that deal for a new sewing machine last fall…. but for Mother’s Day this past year Paul said I could pick a light for any room. I was temped to pick our bedroom, we literally have a bare bulb hanging there, but our living room is making huge strides toward being “done” and since I spend more time awake in there I though it would bring me more joy at this point.

For the past 5.5 years I have been looking at lights, so I had a pretty decent idea of our specifications. I wanted something that was large in diameter so it would feel proportional to the room, but our ceilings are 8’ in the living room so it could not hang down very low. Years of searching led me to realize it was going to be a hard find on a budget, plus I was still trying to figure out what our style was. I finally decided on this beauty.

It arrived today, and Paul hung within a few hours to appease my excitement. It may have taken us 2 episodes of The Office to get all the glass crystals hung, but it was well worth it. I think it has a vintage feel to it, which is perfect as my goal is to add some old home charm back into this house. When Theo woke up from his nap he instantly noticed it on the way downstairs. He continually was distracted by it, and fell over because he was looking up instead of where he was walking, so I think he likes it too.

So for $200 bucks and less than an hour our home is a little closer to being rid of the horrible globe lights. While I still firmly believe paint is the single thing that has the biggest impact on a room, a few hundred bucks in lighting is a close second. I’ve been searching for new lights for several other rooms all day, so I’m just getting started… What do you think has the biggest impact on how a room feels?