Friday, April 15, 2011

Seeing the Light

Before we moved into the house, we made a few small changes. We had a painter come in and paint our living room and bedroom (Passive by Sherwin Williams) since the ceilings were so tall. Dave scraped the popcorn off the under side of the catwalk and the skylights (eek!) as well as in our dining room and nursery. We would have loved to do the whole house but we didn't have the time to refinish all the drywall ourselves and the quote we got for the living room alone was $2,000. So, we are learning to live with popcorn and decided to tackle the rooms/areas where it was most damaged/hideous.

One of our first big DIY projects was hanging a chandelier in the living room. I wanted to soften the room and it desperately needed more light! There are few good places for lamps with all the doorways and lack of outlets in the floor and there was no overhead lighting. Because of the trees in the backyard and the screened-in porch blocking the light through the back windows, the room gets little natural light even with the skylights.


I was worried we wouldn't be able to afford a chandelier large enough to fit the space. However, one day I stumbled into the Charleston Lighting and Interiors store in Summerville. In addition to their beautiful showroom they have three large rooms full of floor model/discontinued Quoizel lighting from stores all over the country! We scored a massive chandelier for $200.


Now the only issue was getting a ladder large enough to hang the chandelier.


Enter massive rental ladder.


I mean really huge. This shot shows what you could see under our catwalk, which is the equivalent of one story.


It was extremely hard to get that ladder in and out without doing major damage to the walls but we managed it. It was also super scary watching Dave scale the ladder and carry the chandelier...but in the end it was worth it.


Chic on a Shoestring Decorating



9 comments:

  1. gorgeous chandy you found...we have hung lots of heavy lighting fixtures but never at that hight...yeesh...you did a wonderful job though! thanks for linking up to fridays unfolded!

    blessings,

    alison
    stuff and nonsense

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  2. That is a beautiful Chandy you got there!
    I would have been covering my eyes watching my hubbie go up that ladder... seriously scary looking.

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  3. Wow! Crazy! You have one brave husband. It is so gorgeous. I can't believe you found such a huge, beautiful chandelier for that price. It really changes the room. A brave husband and a beautiful chandelier, can't beat that combination. ;) Thanks for sharing it with us at Inspiration Friday!

    Heather

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  4. I wanted to pop in and say HI! I've been absent in blog world as of late - even on my own blog - but i wanted to stop in and see what you were up to.

    Love the new house - it's so freakin' cute. The lot looks awesome as well. You're in a fab area and i think you will come to love it.

    Really digging the color you chose for the great room - probably stealing it for my master bath. maybe.

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  5. LOVE the new chandie ... gorgeous !! And, I would pass OUT if I had to climb a ladder that tall. This space looks wonderful !! *Becca*

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  6. Beautiful chandie! The paint color is gorgeous...in some pics it looks blue and other pics it looks gray? Nice job.

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  7. It looks amazing~ I love the new HUGE chandelier! What a score on it and it really does look perfect in your space! Just imagining climbing a ladder with a chandelier that size.... oh...brave hubby! Thanks for sharing at FNF! :)

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  8. Thanks everyone! The ladder is scary and I hope it never has to make another appearance. To Anonymous (haha): The paint does look blue sometimes and gray others. I thought it would be more solidly gray but I like that it's kinda coastal looking.

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