Living Room Update | Modern Lighting

I’m so excited about new living room update. Over the past year I’ve been making a little tweaks here and there to my living room. It all kicked off when Hasani and I added built-in bookcases to our living room which was an amazing addition.

The bookcase brought in much needed hidden and vertical storage and helped make our small 1950’s living room feel larger.

One thing I wasn’t loving is how off the our drum shade was looking and feeling in our living room. Over the years the drum shade had accumulated a layer of dust making it look yellow and no matter how I tried to clean it, in the above picture you can see how off the light was looking.

The light fixture was killing the entire vibe of my living room. I began my search a few months ago, looking for something that would be more sculptural and lean towards mid century modern, but feel modern. Check out this recent post for modern lighting ideas for the living room.

I’m a huge fan of layered lighting in living rooms to help set the mood, in our living room we have a central light, recessed lights and lamps. The more lighting options I have the better! I’m so in love with our new light fixture, it has a modern glam vibe and looks so stunning our living room.

The lamp looks high-end without the sticker stock. Friends, are you sitting down, I found this amazing light fixture on Amazon for under $ 105.00 bucks! The Grammercy Light comes in a few different finishes and glass glob styles and down-rod extensions.

Since this light fixture is hanging our living room and we have standard 8 ft ceilings, we opted to use one six inch down-rod to keep the light fixture close to the ceiling.

The light looks so include and was easy to install, however this light does require a little assembly and the right light bulbs. Attached the globes on to the light fixture can be a little tricky so they’re glass and you want to make extra careful. But ones you get one glob on the light, the following ones go fast.

I’m a big fan of even lighting especially in living rooms, I don’t like crazy shadows. The frosted globe lights provide nice even lighting. The light fixture is bright, so use a dimmer! Honestly all the lights in your bedroom, dining room and living rooms should be a on a dimmer! Our center light is on a dimmer switch so we can easily control the brightness.

My least favorite thing is light bulb shopping, its a nightmare! And light bulbs are so expensive now, its crazy! For this light bulbs, I used LED Dimmable Light Bulbs (LED Dimmable are a must, yes they cost more) I’ll update this blog post with the exact light bulb we used to save you the trouble of going to 3 different stores like I had to find the right size light bulbs!

In addition to adding the light, I wanted to add a ceiling medallion to give some oomph to the light fixture and add dimension. I went with a white 16 inch medallion, that looks so good! I still need to caulk around the light fixture so everything lays nice and smooth. That’s tonight’s DIY Project!

SHOP THE LOOK

Check out my recent blog post for more modern lighting ideas for living room, here. I’m loving this light and how pretty it looks in our living room, it makes me so happy!

What do you think of our new light fixture and do you also finding shopping for light bulbs to be a nightmare?

My Fall Front Porch

I have a confession, I’ve been seriously neglecting my front porch. I’m talking ignoring the dead plants sitting in containers and the overgrown butterfly bushes. Basically it's hot mess central! By the third month of crazy hot temps in Sacramento, I usually throw my hands and up and tell the 100+ degree days you’ve won and I’m tired of watering plants that are dying. Last week, I finally got sick of looking at the mess and decided it was time I visited a few of my favorite nurseries (both local and big box) for some plants to spruce up my front porch for fall. When I got home from the nursery, I went right to work and forget to snap before pictures!

I brought some so many pretty flowers and bushes! In my large planter, I planted a large variegated flowering dogwood bush. I just love how pretty the leaves look against our grey home.

I planted yellow cone flowers, one in the ground and one in a large planter. The lady at the nursery told me they bloom all season, just make sure I dead head the blooms as they fade. In my other planter, I planted poppies,

Decorating my porch has always been a struggle for me, because on one side we have front + porch and the other side is our large front garden bed, the layout doesn’t give me enough room to place larger planters on the right side of my front door. To create some visual balance with the large trio of plants I have on the left side, I added a large marigold. The marigold is so pretty, I picked it up at The Home Depot for under $13.00 run to Home Depot and grab some for your porch or patio!

Next on my front porch project list, is to repaint our front door. Nope, I’m not changing the color at all. In fact I love this color so much! Instead, I’m giving the door a good cleaning and painting it Saturday morning. It’s in need of a fresh coat of paint, with our home facing South West it gets pretty much gets all day long. I plan on getting up early knocking the paint out and then coffee date with Hasani! Basically coffee + painting sounds like the perfect Saturday morning!