New kitchen pendant lights!

22 January 2014

The light fixtures in our house are perfectly serviceable, but they are also not exactly our style. I guess you could call them “builder fancy”? (The upgrade from builder basic achieved via faux wrought iron detailing.) We knew we wanted to switch out almost all of the downstairs fixtures eventually, but I wanted to move slowly because a) it’s an expensive undertaking and b) our downstairs is pretty much one big open room, so all of the fixtures have to work together. We do now have a rough plan, and so have proceeded with step one!

But first, here’s the before:

pendant-lights-before

pendant-lights-before

For the pendant lights over the breakfast bar, we wanted something bright and that took up very little visual real estate. The fixture over the dining room table is very close by and will eventually be a larger statement piece, so we didn’t want them to compete. I first came upon the idea of the glass funnel lights after seeing Courtney’s kitchen (which you know I love):

modern-glass-kitchen

kids-in-kitchen

I like that they’re clean and modern but kind of classic at the same time. John was worried that they’d be too bright since they’re clear glass, but we decided that if we hung them a bit higher than eye level, we’d be okay. The lit-up example in the store helped convince us they wouldn’t be blinding, as well.

Once everyone was on board, we picked out these ones from Home Depot (the pewter finish, which is not available online), and waited patiently until we received them as a Christmas gift (thanks, Mom + Dad!!).

I was SO excited to see that Young House Love ended up using the exact same pendant in their kitchen! Even better, they posted a step by step tutorial for hanging, which was the main reason we didn’t electrocute ourselves during install.

Lights-AFTER-Sink-Light-Close

WhiteCabs-AFTER-Sink

I also found this example, which is just gorgeous:

SH_DESIGN_121312_2938-3516-600-600-80-wm-right_bottom-100-LogoMHDwhitepng

Maine Home Design

And here’s our version!

kitchen-pendant-lights

funnel-pendant-lights

The chandelier you can see in the above photo will be next to go! We’re very happy with this light + bright change, and proud to have some electrical work under our belts! :)

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Meredith
January 22, 2014 8:45 am

Looks perfect, you two! And can we talk about how much I love that you have a breakfast bar? So fun!

January 22, 2014 9:30 am

I like the design of those! They will provide function to the area without cluttering the vertical space. My dad is an electrician and he would be proud of your self-sufficient home maintenance :)

RachelC
January 22, 2014 9:34 am

I love these! Our house is in a similar situation with builder-ish lighting and you have me seriously considering going with those pendants for our breakfast bar & sink.

January 22, 2014 10:04 am

Gorgeous! I can’t wait to see what you pick for the dining room.

Laura
January 22, 2014 11:58 am

They look great! I’m wanting to change out the light in our breakfast eating area, but like you said, lights can be expensive! I love seeing pictures of your house and can’t wait to see more!

Marget
January 23, 2014 6:42 pm

You should have had Seth come down for the electrical – he is man class certified :)

MacKenzie
February 4, 2014 9:12 pm

Haha. “Builder Fancy”. Great term. The new lights look fantastic guys!