Important Lighting Decisions

Because everything involving lamps is life or death, right?! 

 Everything in the house so far has been a 'live with it until you get an idea' style of decorating. And the living room is the ultimate showcase of that [hence, almost nothing has been done].

Well, the time has come to finally address the lamps in the room.  The one on the left of the fireplace is adored and petted almost every day [love that guy.  AND he was only $10 at an antique store in Farmington, MO] but the one on the right was just 'meh' and never felt quite right.  I just stuck it there so we could have light in the room. 

 Then one day I was putting something away in our bedroom and noticed that the floor lamp [Ikea, circa 2011 I think] I put in there was quite a bit taller than the living room one, and I decided that the height was what I needed to finally make me happy again [not really, but everything is more exciting when it's dramatic]. 

 And the proportion looked muuuuch better!  Now, onto making it look better in the space, which turned out to be an Ikea hack! ...does that mean I'm cool?  Ikea hacks are cool, right?

During my great 'Battle of the Beige' I decided that I'm going with a lot of graphic black and white patterns, charcoal grey and black stuff, and pops of color like mustard, aqua and orange, with brass and dark bronze metals.  So the screenprinted silver lamp shade had to change.

Nothing that a little paint couldn't fix!  I got out some black and grey fabric paint [of which I have hoards stashed away in my crafting supplies] and a brush, and got to work.  My dining room table proved the very best spot, because it also has a nice view of the TV.  Always a plus!

Starting with the black first, I made that a nice base at the bottom and feathered it out a bit.  Then added the grey, and made a pretty ombre effect.  And it only took about half an hour [or one episode of Archer, however you choose to measure time]

 

Then it was time to turn my sights on the base, which needed to be gold instead of silver [everything should be gold!]

Prepping the base involved shoving a plastic bag into the socket, and covering the threaded area for that washer thingy [I think it's only an ikea thing, but that works remarkably well for holding the shade on], covering the switch with scotch tape, and cutting off the excess for a clean edge.

And while I was already getting out the steel wool and spray paint, I decided that this little vignette on my hearth needed help too:

 That fiberglass rocket planter, which I've had since high school, needed help.  It was pretty shabby.  So I popped off the rubber feet and made it pretty again!

 [better.]

And how the view of the living room went from this:

 to this!

 Not exactly a huge change, but it's a view I'm finally happy with.  The lamp is a good height, and the extra black and grey on the shade give it enough visual weight to be seen.

 Here's a bit of a different view [still in major love with all of the windows]:

 I like the way it looks, but it's still far from finished.  I still would like to:
- add a credenza for some hidden DVD storage
- get a sculptural plant [fiddle leaf fig is #1 on my list]
- finally make some damn decisions and hang stuff on the walls

Then of course I'd like to get different pillows [you didn't think I'd keep BROWN pillows on my GREY sofa forever, did you?  I'm better than that. I'm just picky and haven't found "the ones" yet.], get a different chair to replace our big-box-store black recliner, etc. etc.  

But it's coming along :)