Saturday, September 13, 2014
Kitchen Enhancements
This week Crate & Barrel was having their annual sale on lighting. I've long had a crush on their Dumont Pendant lamps. Unable to resist the temptation any longer, I ordered two of them for our kitchen.
It's the copper! Copper is an gorgeous natural color, and the beaten effect makes these lamps mesmerizing to look at, both on the outside, as it reflects other colors in the living space, but even more mesmerizing on the inside, when the light shines brightly.
The lamps are HUGE, so their is statement factor with them. The space has to be right for them to work out, but with our wine colored kitchen, they really add dimension and warmth.
In addition to these pendants, I replaced the 750 lumen, warm white, CFLs Ryan installed (which were OK, but made the space feel too dim), with 800 lumen, natural light, LEDs. For the Dumont Pendant lights, I bought 1,100 lumen, soft white LEDs (100W equivelent) and what can I say... WOW!!! The gourmet island we have, is now at center stage, and a true work space with those pendants shining down amply.
For the installation, I was able to research on some original pics I had take of the floor joists, during construction, prior to the dry wall phase. These pics were helpful, since they gave me some level of expectation for bathroom plumbing placement, from the upstairs baths.
I leveraged the electrical wiring for the farthest out recessed light, for the first pendant installation. This required drilling a hole through the nearby floor joist, which I used a flexible bit extender for the job.
Also, to minimize drywall damage, and to ensure a secure electrical box installation, I used these anchors... very handy!
And here are some pics of the process and result: Enjoy!
The ceiling brace is hand adjustable, so once it is placed in the hole, you twist the bar until it is tight.
Here is what I used to drill through to the next space, to run the electrical wire from the recessed light.
An empty margarita glass? As much as I would like to drink on the job, I used this to mark a perfect circle for the hole.
This pic shows what an electrical box for the recessed light looks like. I ran a two-wire into it, then tied it to the existing wires to draw power for the pendant.
Hole for the recessed light, hole for the pendant.
The pendant hole, wired up and ready to go.
One down, one to go...
Stunning, yes/no?
So, our next project will be adding a back-splash tile. I was pretty worried this would be an expensive DIY, but we really lucked out here. Both myself and my SO saw a cheap tile, $4.99/ sq ft that we fell in love with, and will perfectly compliment to copper we are trying to express in our kitchen.
Expect more on that later ;)
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I love the color and texture! Very nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks Asia! I hope to get the tile up soon, that will make it all tie together.
DeleteSo let me see if I comprehend...you cut new holes for both pendant lights in addition to the can lights? Or one new hole and converted one can light? We had extra can lights put in with an eye to converting them, but we haven't gotten there yet.
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda, Two new holes were cut, we did not opt to convert a can because as it turns out we would not have liked where the placing of the light would have resulted. Fortunately, the holes are spaced well enough from the cans so as not to create clutter, and the position of the pendants now really makes the gourmet island into a workstation.
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