our very own game of thrones... er, light fixture

Enter Game of Thones theme music and picture me (Rob) in a "Winter is Coming" type of hat. Now that we have the setting, we can begin!

A light fixture wasn't something that we were necessarily scouring the earth for but when Lindsey's mom sent her a picture of this chandelier, we were sold immediately!

Lindsey's mom is always on the lookout for house stuff and it is really helpful because she definitely sees things that we wouldn't ever think to look at or look for. This chandelier was actually marketed as a fixture for a kitchen island. Our idea for a light fixture was something a bit more rectangular than square or round and because our dining room is long and we have a long table we thought something like this would fit that space evenly.

This fixture by Savoy Lighting was originally around $500 and is now for sale on Savoy's website for $240, that's a good deal in itself, right? Well, sure it would have been but because we ordered from Joss and Main, we got the very same light fixture for only dollars over $100! What a deal! Lindsey is the bargain hunter between us and sales like this make her giddy. 

In the stock picture above the shades look brown but in real life they look much darker. The metal is brushed bronze and there are some gold highlights. Overall, it matches the dining room perfectly and gives it a "Game of Thrones" feeling as we were joking last night after installing!

The installation process was surprisingly easy and only took about an hour from start to finish. Since, neither one of us had hardwired a light fixture in before, we felt accomplished. 

I started by shutting off the power to the dining room and detaching the old fixture from the ceiling.

     

***SIDE NOTE: Because "Winter is Coming" now rings so true in Michigan and seems as though it has come to stay, I donned a winter hat for this assignment, not because our home is frigid but because I wanted to. It just seemed right. (Lindsey kept reminding me that "that hat is going to be in pictures!")

Taking the light fixture down wasn't hard at all. After unscrewing a few screws the light was down - leaving (as you can see) a lovely ring from the previous owner painting the ceiling and not taking the fixture down. Lindsey was thrilled underwhelmed to add another painting project to her list... right now, it's not a high priority for either of us but it's been added to the list.

After the original fixture was down we had to measure and see how low we wanted the new fixture to hang. They gave us so much extra chain as you can see below, it was longer than Lindsey is tall! We decided to go with four links from the ceiling which is about 36 inches from the table top, giving us a nicely lit table and a good view throughout the room.

     

As always our girls were close by our sides and very often underfoot during this project. Harlee found her place under the ladder which I think makes her unlucky for seven years, sorry about that girl, and Oswin has always got her nose or paws into something! 

I used two sets of pliers to bend the links to first detach and then reattach to the proper length. Lindsey held the fixture while I adjusted the links and cut the wires. We didn't want to cut too much wire so we left some extra that we ended up just pushing into the ceiling and under the ceiling cap.

  

Once everything was cut and reattached, I was able to easily wire in the fixture. Because we weren't using the full length of chain, Lindsey had to hold up the weight of the light while I was attaching everything. Thankfully, it didn't take long and the light was up and attached with no glitches. 

 

 

The light looks great in the dining room and flows perfectly with the feeling in both the dining room and the adjoining living room. We are very happy with this purchase, not only because it was easy to install and the price was perfect, but because it works great with our existing decor! 

We also installed some metal antlers that Lindsey bought before we even moved in. She has been dying to find them the perfect home and put them up and well, she found it! I was super skeptical at first, thinking "antlers, really??", but honestly I do like them now that they are up! They really lend to the Game of Thrones feeling that I have towards the dining room; now all we need is an iron throne!

Thanks for following along with us,
Until next time,
Rob