Oh, and this thing.
I'm pretty sure this fan and cover have NEVER been cleaned,even though the house was just repainted for the sale.
A little wash and spray paint took care of the almond cover, and yours truly picked all the gunk out of the fan with my fingers and a paper towel. As it rained down on my head and face. Gross. It looks good now, though. Please ignore the shadows on the ceiling from the light.
You know when you start painting a room, and you say 'OH CRAP' (or something less PG) when you step back to look at what you've done so far? That happened to me when I was painting the walls with Sherwin Williams Gale Force. This is the finished color:
It was dark, which I was expecting...but knowing it beforehand and actually seeing it are two different things. I also used eggshell because I thought a little sheen would be nice to reflect light in a dark room. I always use flat, always. And even though I knew darker paints look even shinier, I was still shocked by the gloss. The worst part is seeing all the roller and brush strokes. But after two coats, I was pleased. And I set about installing the new sconces I got for the room.
I rarely ever turn off the power to a room when I'm changing a light, usually I turn off the switch and call it good, and YES I sometimes get shocked. In fact, I did while installing the left sconce because I forgot I had the switch on while messing around with it. I'm an electrical superhero. Or super idiot, depending on how you look at it.
I have to say, having a newer home is like heaven when you are replacing light fixtures. New wiring! No cloth! Standard size junction box! The only thing I wish is that I hadn't painted around the old sconces, that created a bunch of sanding and scraping to remove the paint ovals from around the new square fixture base. Dumb.
I know this bathroom was added to the house sometime in the 80s, so I was interested to see this light was from 2008. I wonder if whoever put up these boring sconces took out some awesome polished brass beauties and threw them out. Would not surprise me.
When I'm putting up new lights alone (ahem, which is every time) I have a little trick if you are installing a light light. I mean, a light that isn't heavy. I usually wrap the ground wire around the screw to hold it up while I do all the connecting of the wires. Works great on wall sconces! Less great on ceiling fixtures. I usually sweat much more profusely while installing ceiling lights. FYI - my electrical advice is probably not good. Don't listen to me.
You guys, I was so happy when I got these both up...then I stepped back and noticed the right sconce was a full half inch lower than the left one! The junction boxes were not level with each other. I was so pissed and spent the next 20 minutes mucking around with the adjustable portions of the mounting strap trying to cheat the fixture up on that side. The right side box is also not flush with the wall but I can't seem to get it flush no matter what I do - so the fixture sticks out at the top. Ugh, new electrical was supposed to be easy! But, they are up and level. And we both LOVE them!
Here is the fixture I got, a George Kovacs 2 Light wall sconce from Lighting Direct in Honey Gold.
I knew it would class up the joint, and I liked that I could put two 60 watt bulbs in each light. I also like that the light will be thrown mostly UP, which is more flattering than down lights. It reflects off the white ceiling and just feels so much nicer.
Love, love, love! This is a photo at night, the wall color looks more teal and the lights are so gorgeous.
So, you can see the eyesore in the photo above, the 80s country cabinet that I haven't decided what to do with yet.
I know it has to go, no amount of paint or hardware could bring it into the present day...but we do love the extra storage. Open shelves would modernize the space, but I don't know if I want to throw all my toiletries and things in baskets. I'm extremely lazy about putting away toiletries, as you can see from my little table. What do you think so far?