Lights, camera, action!!

Ok, so no camera, but still!

We are in major kitchen over-haul mode. Slightly exaggerating, maybe a little. Here's what we're working with though:

I can't, in good conscience, show you the BEFORE before pictures. They're terribly frightening and you might not sleep for days. The top picture is after I cleaned up. A LOT. The bottom picture is when I finished cleaning and was able to re-arrange things to give us more space to work with.

What you can't see in these pictures are these:

This is what 1979 looks like in lighting. They've had their day in the sun and now it's time for them to go.

Fortunately, these lights are actually spaced properly in the room (the only original ones in the whole house that are!) So changing them out won't be terribly difficult. Good bye faux oak and dingy antiqued brass!!

Eventually, we'd like to put recessed lighting in here, but for my sanity the time being, we will be switching them up with more appealing and functional light fixtures. The top picture is the fan that is centered over the kitchen table. It's getting replaced with this:

I love the industrial look of this light. I love the proportion to our kitchen table and I love that it's brushed steel so it matches all the pretty hardware I bought to add to the cabinets (and the soon-to-be stainless appliances). I also thoroughly enjoy the price tag: $29.99!!!! BOOM!!! I <3 Ikea!

I knew I wanted that light from the minute I saw it. I had been up in the air on nickle or oil rubbed bronze finishes for the kitchen and when I came across this pendant, the deal was sealed! Easy-peasy.

So I should have known that choosing the other light for the kitchen would be far less simple! I wanted some sort of track lighting system for that area so that I could get as much light out of 1 fixture as possible. After scouring Home Depot and Lowes and extensive online research, I narrowed it down to these:

1 , 2 , 3 , 4

1 was hands down my favorite but all of these fixtures were great. After comparing the prices and bang for the buck, 1 and 4 were knocked out. Even though they weren't terribly expensive, the Ikea fixtures were almost 1/2 the price and had an extra lamp. In a townhouse kitchen, that 1 bulb will make a difference. After some serious online comparison shopping on Ikea.com, I still couldn't decide, so off to the store I went. Not remembering how many people were off today for Easter/Spring break. Place was PACKED.

I snapped a few phone pics and consulted with my bff and 20 minutes later I was heading to the car with Ottava and Barometer (#2) in tow. Again, the Ikea prices are hard to beat. I got both lights for the grand total of $84.78, almost 2 lights for the price of 1.... For the WIN!