Tract Home Upgrade-Lighting

By definition:

tract house

Lighting

Lighting is one of those things that when you walk into typical tract home you don’t even notice. It becomes a bit like a wall flower, blending in.  Who wants their lighting to blend in?  I feel like lighting should be a focal point and make a room pop.  So when looking at lighting options of our new construction home we had several choices all which appeared to look the same (and identical to our soon to be neighbors) and none worth the amount of money they wanted to charge for those upgrades.  So we went on the hunt for our own unique light fixtures to install after closing. I can’t say hubs was stoked about the direction we decided to go in but being the amazing man he is, happily obliged and later shocked the shit out of himself hanging my lights.

Open Concept Kitchen/Dining Room

So here’s move-in day lighting. See what I mean? Blah they only reason you would even see the lighting is after you run into it.

So this house was supposed to take 120 days to build (never listen to a builders rep when they are trying to close a contract) and it ended up taking 251. Not that we were counting. So I had PLENTY of time to find lighting. But I was on the hunt for budget friendly!  So I scoured the internet, Pinterest and typical bargain stores in my area. We finally decided on  Ikea Hektar for over our dining table. Can you believe this massive statement piece only costs $59.  Next up are the 3 lights over the island. I wish I could link the exact ones but they were purchased at Southeastern Salvage and I was never able to find anything online about the lights. But they ran $39 each.  At first hubs wasn’t sold on them but once they were hung with adorable edison bulbs and barstools were in place he was on board. Winning.

Here is the final (for now. I have commitment issues when it comes to decorating and design) But I’m super impressed at what a difference $200 in lighting can make. What do you think?

Guest Bath

Next up is our guest bathroom downstairs. It’s located close to the front door and off the foyer so it’s kinda visible. I’m not trying to completely make my husband hate the building process so until he hangs my entry way light and stair case lighting, I thought I would do a little change to make a difference without having to change the whole fixture. The actual fixture doesn’t bother me, its more of the tulip-y shape of the frosted, glass globes.

So went to my friendly Lowe’s and picked up some glass globes to replace my current ones. Only needed 2 so I got out of there for under $8 and it will hold me over until I am ready to replace. And he got home and never noticed. Good or bad thing?Finished for now. What do you think?

Foyer

The last thing I want my guest to see as a first impression when they walk through the door is a boob light. I feel like it needs to have a red light in it. But this space is small, it needs to make a statement while being flexible since door swings inward. So I found this gem on Amazon. I need you to see my vision here. It’s different for sure but isn’t it fabulous?

and after….

(still waiting for it to be hung)

So months later its still not hung and has actually been sold. It didn’t end up working so we went a different direction. I found this rustic orb at the Nashville Flea Market for under $20 (our flea market has gotten to be a bit trendy, so prices are still a little high for my flea market soul)

and thought it would make a perfect Restoration Hardware Orb but without that $500+ price tag. I’d love to invest in lighting, my issue is I like change too much to invest knowing it’ll be changed as soon as its hung (sorry hubs). So for months it stat around until one day we were out of town in Cincinnati and ran into Ikea and grabbed a hardwire lighting kit (ill update on exact one once i find). It was under $10 though.

Staircase

So first things first. Where these hung upside down?  I feel like on a stair case you need light on the stairs, you know to see where you are going. And these are shooting light upwards. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were on upside down. Here are those tulip-y frosted globes again. Kinda boring and a bit ’80s.

I wanted something that would stand out and would coordinate better with that railing. So to Amazon I went and stumbled upon these guys and at $40 each I was sold.

So took a little longer than expected. Mainly because the original light I purchased had too small of a back plate and involved “too much work” so back to Amazon I went and found these.

Final (for now)