new kitchen lights
Posted: January 12th, 2012 | Author: eliza | Filed under: electricity, kitchen | No Comments »
We finally got (almost) all the fixtures and shades for the kitchen ceiling lights! It was really hard to pick because we love old stuff but we don’t have any particular historical period that we’re trying to recreate. Our house has some prominent Victorian features, but most of the structure is older, and the exterior looks like it was originally made in a Greek Revival style before it got its Victorian makeover. But almost nothing of the original interior remains, aside from crumbly plaster and old lath. So the house doesn’t really give us any particular direction to follow. And anyway, electric lights weren’t around when our house was built. So we’re just going with a sort of 19th and 20th century hodge-podge. We didn’t think anything too dainty or flashy would make sense in a farmhouse kitchen with these rough exposed ceiling beams. These schoolhouse style shades were pretty popular around the 1920′s – 1940′s, though they most often hang from longer pendants. Because of our low ceilings, we chose 1930′s reproduction ceramic flush mount fixtures. I think they fit the space pretty well! They give a slightly warm, yellow light, which I like.
We did four of these same lights, and then we have two industrial pendant lights that go over the island. We got these metal shades at the salvage place in Kennebunk, and we bought these pendant fixtures online but I really do not like them at all so they’re only staying here til we replace them with something better.
We’ll have one different fixture over the sink that we haven’t gotten yet (probably some kind of modern strip lighting that will hide behind the ceiling beam) and a different light in the corner by the fridge. We picked this crazy stripey shade, which I’m still trying to get used to. I’m not sure the fixture and shade are a perfect match for each other, but I’m going to wait and see if it grows on me. We can always switch it around later.
