Lighting the Way

Last night I was chilling on the sofa while Mojo our lovable Chihuahua was laying on my, when I glanced into our dining room. I realized then that our house has come a long way since we bought it late December 2008 and moved in January 2009. I think one the changes I love most that we've done thus far is the lighting. Finding the right light fixture has been the starting point of most our room re-dos. When we first moved into our home, our living room had the ugliest ceiling fan. It was an ugly faux wood grain brown one. Although I'm not the biggest lover of ceiling fans they are a must for No. California heat waves. See what I mean. 

Since the fan was a keeper, we did a quick update with white spray paint. Perfect solution for updated a dreary ceiling fan. Our ceiling fan now blends into the our what ceiling and is not not and ugly eyesore. See you can barely tell its there.

Since spray painted our of ceiling fan white, most of of lighting updates have happened this year. Since I love the look of drum shades over dining room tables, they look so chic and give off a great cool vibe in a room, we upgraded our old basic dining room light. Here's how our old dining room, right after we started taking the sucker down. Yay its was really up there! Lovely. 

 We customized the Eden Drum shade we purchased from CB2 by hardwiring it and using a down-rod similar to styles you see in resutrants, which gives the light fixutre a nice clean look for our dining room.

I love the the ambiance the light gives off when its on. 

Next we upgraded the same light in our sons room (the previous owner installed the light fixture in every room in the house! I think they took the more is the merrier approach. Again this light fixture was ho hum.

The look of is bedroom change the instant Mr. CLH installed his new light fixture. I found a wood grain style drum shade on clearance at Lowes for $ 53 bucks (read more about it here) His new bedroom light is a serous upgrade and cool. 

Inside of the light fixture is a cityscape, I love the warm glow in casts in his bedroom.

I saved the the best for last, Ok maybe I'm a little biased because the light fixture is in my bedroom! We swamped out the same light fixture that was in my sons room for a modern version of the chandelier. For me its the wow factor in our bedroom and I love it, we also added a dimmer switch on the chandelier. Here's the chandelier in the late evening with the dimmer switch on. 

And with the lights all the way. I love the shadows the light fixture cast in the room.  

So far we switched out or upgraded five light fixtures in our home, I know ones missing our bathroom! But thats a post for another day. For me lighting and paint is one of the best ways to add instant drama into a room and make it personal. Have you've been slowly updated the lighting your home? What's your biggest wow factor lighting upgrade so far, or what will it be?