Dining light

One of the big projects for the weekend was to install a dining room light. Here is a before picture of what we have been living with for many many months now. I'd almost venture to say we've been living with it for years. In fact one of the first things we did when we moved in was to take down the existing ugly chandelier. I'm pretty sure we've been just using a bulb since then (about 2.5 years ago)!

So, we bought a track lighting kit at lowes that had three nice small amber glass pendants. We thought the track lighting would be a fun addition to the room, and the pendants would add both color and interest. Here we are trying to design possible track scenarios given where we thought the lights should go. We even used a protractor to measure the angles of the lights in relation to the center of the room.

Here begins the options that we tried out in terms of the track placement. Guess which one we went with...

Here is what I call the S curve or snake track possibility. You can't see in this picture, but we made little mock-ups of the lights so that we could visualize what it would look like.

Here are the mock up lights with the spiral configuration. One option was a smaller spiral that didn't extend quite as far, but this one looks more like a spiral and we thought we could use 2 of the little track lights to spotlight our art on the bookcase.

Here is the question mark track possibility.

We also tried a version with the lights all in a row at the same length. It just didn't seem right/didn't fill the space like we wanted to, so we kept trying to decide between the other curvy track schemes.

Here is your chance. Guess which one we chose before you scroll down any further.

OH- I forgot--here is a new Japanese Maple tree we bought yesterday. It is a sturdy little tree and has very beautiful leaves.

This is the groundcover we are going to use in the pot. I love how bright green it is!

Here is our old Japanese maple, and some ornamental grass.

And finally--what you have all been waiting for (not really, but it makes it sound important). Below is the light we finally chose to put in our dining room. If you answered "none of the above" you were correct. (I know-trick question)

After all that work, and more than half the morning, we decided to take the track lighting kit back to lowes and figure something else out. We again considered making our own fixture. We browsed the high end lighting store in seattle. Then, when we were at Home Depot later that day, we saw this and said--$ 40 and we don't have to make it and it can be installed today? Sign us up! So here is the simple pendant we bought and David installed yesterday. It is on a dimmer switch, which makes it really nice to change the intensity of the color and light.

As David said..."This place is starting to feel like a home".