Moroccan Lantern

Here I am, happily cozy on my day off, relaxing on the couch and enjoying blinding sunshine one moment; rain/hail the next on this day of strange weather in San Francisco. Most surprising is that I'm feeling equally inspired by both extremes of weather! (i'm usually anything but inspired by rain!)

For my first post, I'll cover our recent light fixture project. Our house came with brand new and perfectly nice ceiling light fixtures, but they're nothing I would have picked out, and do nothing for the space. The first one to go was in the dining room.

Back in a 2007 issue of Domino, designer Schuyler Samperton's dining room was featured (photo above). SO much to love about this room - saris as curtains, layers on the table and floor... but most of all -- the perfect moroccan lantern. (this link is the source but not the exact lantern.) I FELL IN LOVE, and could hardly wait for the day when I could have my very own - if much more affordable - version.

Mission accomplished last month on ebay, and for only $36! (after several additional supplies which were required for installation, total cost was around $50 -- still a steal as far as I'm concerned!)

After removing the old fixture, a trip to Lowe's helped us gather the materials needed to wire and attach the new lantern to the ceiling (cord, chain, ceiling mount).

So, enough of the story - let's get to the pictures! Here's a 'before' picture (with some of the lovely friends who joined us for Thanksgiving last year). See what I mean? It gets lost above the table, and has no character to speak of. Moving on....

The new, beautiful Moroccan lantern in its place:


some close-ups:


Check out the pattern created by the light on the ceiling - love it!

I'm sooooo happy with our new light fixture, and now even MORE inspired to replace the other two like it (one in the kitchen, one in living room).

I need to give my husband much of the credit for this project, since he was the one to actually remove the old fixture, handle the wiring, chain, etc. Thanks sweetie!

The dining room is far from finished - among my many goals are new chairs, a beautiful paint color on the walls, a curtain to cover the bathroom doorway ... the list goes on. However, there also are many, many other projects which are likely to rise the the surface first ... so you likely won't see this room again for awhile! Let me know what you think about our lovely lantern. :)