E-Haus: Adventures in Lighting

Beware: there is a major photo overload in this post.

The problem with choosing our own lighting for E-Haus was that although doing so meant that we got to pick our own stuff, it did not give us an unlimited budget with which to make selections. The modest credit that we received helped somewhat, but since builder-grade = inexpensive, we knew that we would be investing a certain amount over that total. But where to invest it?

We decided that the best use of our extra funds would be spent in our great room, which is great in many ways, not least of which is its size. We needed our lighting to make a statement. I initially voted for chandelier, citing designs like this one:

source

But, as much as I am drawn to these looks in theory, Nate made the good point that we are both not traditional enough and also not formal enough to make an elaborate light fixture "work." So we set out to look for fans that would not be dwarfed by our space and stumbled upon this one:

It's a little modern, a little industrial, and huge. It was also a big splurge for us, so we scoured big box options like Amazon, Home Depot, Menards & Lowe's for the other hundred lights we needed. And I even found my chandelier, which will be happily installed in our library/ playroom. 

Here's much of what we ended up purchasing:

A whole lot of modern/ rustic/ industrial in primarily dark oil-rubbed bronze and black finishes that help them to stand out against our light gray painted walls and place nicely with the dark metal balusters on our stairs and balcony. The single exception is the crystal flushmount for N's room, because she wanted a "sparkly light" and we felt obliged to deliver in some way. We delivered all of the lighting in a few different carloads over the course of a weekend, and five days later-- not only were our walls painted, but the lighting was installed as well. This made for a dramatic change that mostly just served to make us more antsy for occupancy and move-in day. 

Here are some of our lights in action:

(Ignore the dusty floors mid-installation. I'll get to them later!)

Now that we have light, we can stalk our house at any time of day! Hooray!