Our Living Room Chandelier

Our living room during the day is a big bright space.  It’s got this wall of windows and it gets all the light.  But at night….different story.  Usually our fix is just add more recessed lighting…but that won’t work in this two story room.  And you would think that with a chandelier that has 18 (yes, you read that correctly – one eight!) that with one flick of a switch, the light would come POURING down.  BUT our old fixture was hung REALLY high and it barely illuminated the room.

What old fixture you may ask?  Oh right….the one that barely ever made it into photos….

The gold chandy was one thing that both Jeremy and I always hated…..always….but we just could never agree on a fixture.  We had only ever talked about replacing once and the chandelier he had picked out was wood and metal and didn’t have enough bulbs.  I liked the look but we need all the light in here.

Even when we hired Carlos to paint this room, we told him “don’t worry about the light….it’s going to be here only for a couple more weeks till we find the replacement”.  That was YEARS ago 🙂

And then I found her.  The light that I knew would be the perfect blend of Jeremy’s original pick with the metal and wood and my desire to have lots of light…..it was THIS BEAUTY.

I was on Wayfair and found the 5 light version of this gorgeous chandelier and thought….oh if that had more lights, it would be perfect.  I kept scrolling.  Then I saw the 8 light version…..the thought ran through my head “Is eight enough?  Could I make eight work?” and I kept scrolling…….the heavens opened up and bada boom bada bing…..TWELVE LIGHTS!  It was perfect!  It even had a better price tag than I had anticipated (I priced out a TON of 36″ wide chandeliers with 12+ lights and they were all over $1K so getting this for $850 was a dream!).

I immediately started googling how high to hang it.

It seemed like all the ideas I saw were MUCH lower than our current chandelier.  I also read that if your fixture is hung too high then it will actually decrease the amount of light you have in your room.  I slapped my palm to my forehead and had a duh moment.  OF COURSE.  It was too high!

The day the new light arrived I asked Jeremy about installing it and he shook his head “Katie, I don’t even have a ladder that big.” It’s true.  If the kids throw things on our ledges, we have to get a blower and try to get it down with a twelve foot ladder that belongs to our neighbor.  There is no way we can remove a fixture that is 26 feet high.

So we sourced a rental company for scaffolding….$250 for the height we needed.  Boo.  Hiss.  Jeremy ended up saying – well we should just pay someone to do it.  “That way I don’t have to do the work or rent anything.” Spoken like a true tired parent 🙂  I agreed as long as the hired electrician was less than $250.  Jeremy called a local lighting company and got a couple different numbers for quotes.  $200 and three days later, there were two strong guys and a big ole ladder in our living room.

They had a pulley system for lowering the chandelier…..which is a lot safer than what our method would have been….BOMBS AWAY!

And then they got to prepping the next phase…installation.  As you can see – the old next to the new…..both had similar shapes and sizes but completely different styles and finishes.

I love that ceiling medallion.  It reminds me of vacation 🙂

And have you ever seen a more dusty light?!  Ugh.  Remind me that I need to get the blower out on the chandelier more often 🙂

The next big step was figuring out how high to hang the new one.  First they attached the chain….

Then they attached the chandelier….

The old chandelier was centered on the big window that was opposite the living room.  That normally is the piece of designing advice online….but in our case, it was just too high.  Lowering the chandelier wouldn’t have taken anything away from seeing it from the other side because this side of the house is just REALLY high.  See that big window on the far right of the house with the semi-round circle above it?  That is the living room.

Also I made it even more difficult because I was at a friends house for a swim party.  So Jeremy and I face timed for the decision.  The end result was to hang the new one two feet lower than the previous one.

Once the decision was made, the electricians wired it back up…

Finished installation….

And went on their merry way.

Personally I think that the new one is hung PERFECTLY.  It was the best $200 ever spent.  Jeremy wholeheartedly agrees.  Mostly because he didn’t have to get on a ladder 🙂

Now I have no problem including this beauty in the photos 🙂

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the wood and metal look.  It is industrial and farmhouse-y and more contemporary and a bit coastal all in one….and that is kind of our style.

And the best news is – that even though we went from 18 to 12 lights….we actually GAINED lighting because we lowered the fixture.  It is brighter and feels cozier at the same time.  The vast space before between us and the light made it feel cavernous but now it feels like we have a smidge of intimacy in the room and I love looking up and seeing this beauty!

p.s.  Here are the links to all the things because I know I will get asked!

• rug
• couch
• new chandelier
• leather chairs
• clock
• fireplace screen
• paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Stingray