I never realized how much of a light-freak I had become until sourcing literally hundreds (nay thousands?) of lighting choices for our living room makeover. I mean, yeah…I’ve DIY’d my own “peek-a-boo” lampshades and have blogged on numerous designs and styles, but when I was actually given the green light to purchase one brand new, the lighting flood gates (or should I say flood lights) gushed in like a scene out of Deep Impact.
It was pretty overwhelming, but after a couple months of searching, Matt and I landed on this modernized version of a mid-century modern swag light. Ironically, although 99.99% of the lights I was considering were ones I found online, this Caza pendant lamp shone brightest as it hung proudly in HD Buttercup‘s showroom.
Our new pendant light!
Shiny and unique, it was like Christmas when we un-bubble wrapped our new pendant light. Note: we did end up having to take it back, as one of the wires powering the 22 bulbs came unconnected.
Tip: be sure to make a note to the sales person to instruct the individual packing your light to be extra careful when disconnecting it from their showroom.
Measuring the placement of the pulley.
Instead of installing one of those ho-hum screw-in hooks to hang our pendant light, I found these really cool pulleys online.
Drilling holes for anchor screws.
Our new pendant light hit the top three on our makeover “most expensive items list”…so we were darn sure gonna secure it with properly weight baring anchor screws.
Trusty anchor screws.
Installing the pulley system.
Customizing the pulley system.
Though the electrical wires were encased compactly, the pulley system required customizing to make threading it through its holes and wheel system doable. I decided to spare you the sweat-equity details here. Let’s just say our custom hanging system was quite tricky and patience was a premium when it came to successfully completing this task.
Positive point: Matt and I have come a loooooooong way DIYing together…though this was a tough one, we came through with smiles and hugs!
Anchoring the pendant light.
I believe Matt might have hung from this wire to test its hold…we were ready to go! Note: yes, we certainly had some touching up to do once the lights came on!
Mid-century mod pendant light.
The absolute magic of this fixture is the illusion of hundreds of lights when illuminated. Every night is a light show now…well worth the total pain-in-the-ass and several heart-stopping-moments installation. Now, we’ve definitely earned some swag rights.
How do you like our new light? What kind(s) do you have in your home?
All photography by Skaie Knox, HomeJelly
