The first day

Lighting.

In a word, lighting can make or break a room, a picture or even a dream!  Changing the lights in a room can make one thing look like another.  That being said, my lights needed some work...

Yeah, not the best, I know.  All 3, yup, only 3 lights in the entire kitchen, were put in specifically for light.  Nothing AT ALL about aesthetics was even considered.  I'v ehad my eyes on these for a while, all with the intention of getting rid of them.  However, in order to kick out the old lights, I needed to know where the new lights should go.  That meant that I needed a more definitive kitchen cabinet plan.  (Nothing in this house is EVER simple.  It's do 3 other steps to get the one step you wanted to do in the first place done!)

You might recall my original kitchen plans from long ago.  I loved 96% of everything I saw in them.  The other 4% I wanted to change and that involved changing some functional cabinetry and redesigning other pieces.  Not fun, but once it was done, it meant that we could install the recessed lights that I wanted to function as the general lighting for my room.  I won't bore you with the hours spent running wires, eating drywall dust and trying to make can connections work.  Instead, here's the new look!

The cans are the basic 6" cans exactly like the ones in the pantry.  They come with the part for the ceiling and nothing else.  From there you can customize to your heart's content, using different baffles and bulbs.  Instead of dropping $15-$20 on a baffle plus the cost of a bulb, I elected to spend a bit more and go with the all inclusive LED light. The cost over the long term should be better and I love the soft warm light it provides.

At just over $30 each, I'm going with the one a month version purchase plan!  Come see me in a year and they should all be in!  And yes, that means that I went from 3 light fixtures to almost 12, if not more!  (That doesn't include accent lighting and more specific task lighting.  And no, you don't need sunglasses when you're in the room.  Instead it looks perfect!)