Blingy Boob Light

I love a good photograph.  Especially a well framed photograph.  I’ve become a master of framing my photographs during the craziness that has been our home remodel over the last couple of years.  Typically, just outside the photograph is a giant stack of papers, trash bag full of construction debris, pile of paint cans, and a ginormous hole in the wall (or missing wall altogether).  The parlor has been no such exception.  Most often, when I take photos of the parlor, they look like this:

In reality, the parlor looks more like this (note the light fixture):

A proper light fixture in this room has been missing for well over a year.  The old, dated fixture was removed when Colby deemed all the old electrical work in the house “unsafe” and cut all the old wires (for the most part) and we brought in an electrician to help us rewire.  That left a few light fixtures, such as this one with a pig tail light.

These lights were something that we learned about when our electrician came in to help us out.  They’re fully working lights, just a very basic ones.  The beauty of a pig tail light is that you can hook up a light bulb and properly light a room without installing a more permanent/traditional light fixture.  This leaves the ceiling open so you can paint it and work around the light.  It’s a beautiful thing, the concept that is, not the look.  So I was very excited when this weekend rolled around and we finally broke down and bucked up a few dollars (more like $88) for a fancy new light fixture from Lowes.

Oh, and before we get into the new light, can we just take a moment to pay homage to owning an old (100+ years old) home.  Our ceiling has layers, several layers.  Four to be exact.  Here’s the proof:

In the grand master plan for our house, we have every intention in the world to gut out this room, and pretty much every other room in the house.  It’s mostly for insulation purposes.  As in, we pretty much don’t have any insulation in our walls which makes for a really awesome heating bill for these Mainers.  I mean that sarcastically.  Very sarcastically.  So someday, our four layers of ceiling will come down and be replaced with a traditional sheet rock ceiling.  The task should make the room a little taller too.  But that’s down the road…several thousand miles down the road we’re crawling along.

So back to the light.  I just have to point out how the light was packaged.  With lots and lots and lots of shredded foam.  Goose enjoyed it.  I however, did not enjoy picking up the stuff throughout the house.

After Colby shut off the power to the whole house (it was very captain safety of him), he installed the light box into the ceiling and then installed the light.  This left us with a GORGEOUS new light fixture on our previously naked parlor ceiling.

So much improved!  The crazy thing about this light fixture is that it’s still a boob light.  It seems like the only kind of flush to the ceiling lights you can get these days is a boob light.  I can’t stand boob lights.  We have a couple in our home which we use as temporary lighting until we decided on a permanent light fixture.  They were cheap, $10 lights that have been like nomads in our home traveling from room to room.  But for some reason, the beading in the new light fixture makes it feel like a much fancier, blingy boob light.  I love it!  And while we’re on the subject of boob lights, this one:

He’s one of the $10 nomad boob lights in our home.  He lives in the living room (Is it appropriate to call a boob light a he?  Shouldn’t it be a she?):

Because our living room and parlor are practically one room, we’re trying to make the two rooms flow into each other better.  We’re hoping to refinish the floor and paint the walls/trim in the living room to match that in the parlor.  Well, it felt weird having the $10 boob light in the living room, against the fancy tin ceiling, when there was a fancier, classier boob light in the parlor.  So the cheap boob light got the ax this weekend too in lieu of an upgrade:

I love how fancy the beading looks up against the tin:

So pretty.  It’s such a major improvement and I absolutely adore the new lights.  Having the pair really helps unite the two rooms since both are simultaneously visible to someone in either the living room or the parlor.  I tried to capture that photographically, but the angle is a little funky.  But I thought I would share anyway.

These light fixtures are not only really pretty during the day, but they cast some amazing light in the evenings.  Some of the shadows are really interesting looking thanks to all the beading.  Here is a closeup of the shadows on the ceiling:

And another view of the ceiling shadows and the wall shadows:

So I’m very pleased with our upgraded office space and the quick fix that made such a huge impact.  So what’s next on the office space/parlor update?  A gallery wall just to the right of my desk chair.  I can’t wait to get started on that project.  I’ve already ordered a couple of prints from Etsy and have been “shopping” our home for other art pieces.  But until then, I’m enjoying working in our new space.

Pssst…Anyone else upgrade their light fixtures this weekend?  It’s such a quick project but makes a HUGE impact.  I’m also curious, has anyone found a flush light fixture that’s stylish yet not a boob light?  Why are those lights so hard to find?!