The Fan Fiasco

When Cameron & I first moved in to our circa 1980s home, we made a ton of improvements.  One of these days I'll get around to posting the before & afters.  But after a while, we hit a wall with the renovations.  This weekend we decided to tackle a few more things on our very long to-do list - changing out light fixtures.  First up were the lights in the upstairs & downstairs hallways.  We went from the typical 80's gold globes to the standard of today - flushmount "boob" lights.  Not particularly my favorite, but cheap and they fit the space.  Cameron actually purchased these and had them installed before I got home from work on Saturday.

Next on the agenda was the ceiling fan in our bedroom.  Here's the before in all its gold glory:

We opted for a slightly smaller fan with an oil-rubbed bronze flushmount.  The original fan was 48" and most fans at Lowe's were either 52" or 44."  Our master isn't particularly large so I felt the 52" would overpower the room.  I really liked this fan and for once, I picked out the cheap option!  Cameron has installed light fixtures and ceiling fans before - piece of cake right??  Think again.  After about 5 or 6 re-installations and calling in reinforcements (our friend Lance, who works for a contractor), it was determined the fan motor was bad.  The light would turn on, but the fan wouldn't run.  By this point we have spent the entire afternoon on the project and were determined to finish so back I went to exchange the fan for another one.  The second worked like a charm and this girl is very happy!

The last project is what happens when I spend too much time in Lowes.  I have never liked our foyer light fixture.  No, it's not particularly awful, just not me and has a silver finish when we have primarily converted the rest of the house to bronze.

So while wandering through the lighting department in Lowes, I happened to see this light fixture by allen + roth:

It was just what I wanted - something with interest and flush-mounted so it doesn't hang too low.  But it was pewter.  At first I walked away from it, but then came the idea of spray paint.  Yes, I purchased a brand new fixture, took it home and spray painted it with this:

 

My amazing husband even installed it Saturday night after the fan fiasco.  And Lance was there to hold since my little arms were tired from the numerous installations previously in the day.

 Now I have this in my foyer:

While our projects look a little longer than expected, I'm so glad to have them completed and crossed off the list.  I wonder what I can convince Cameron to work on next weekend...