Curating

Two things that I find very stressful are coordinating an entire house of light fixtures and selecting artwork for an entire house.

Both require curating. Not just picking, but carefully making sure that the finishes/colors and styles reflect what you want while not competing with each other. This post is about the first (the light fixtures). This curating process was brutal for me. Making sure visually each fixture made sense with any other visible fixtures. Making sure that once I'd picked my dream fixtures, that I could find an alternative to fit in the budget.

I've spent probably a solid 10 hours on the selection of light fixtures alone. Which doesn't seem like a lot, but if you've ever spent 10 hours looking at light fixtures online or in stores, it'll make you question everything you would consider to be sane. And again, I do this for a living.

However, I'm done and they're all purchased and on their way.

We will live in a very old house which in this state equals traditional. I like a little bit of traditional flare. I'm more eclectic/traditional/modern. That's a thing right? I had to find the very fine line between modern and traditional. I don't want things to look terribly out of place but I'm over the oil rubbed bronze phase. The fixtures I would love cost thousands of dollars (of course) so I spent the majority of my time finding those alternates I talked about above.

The kitchen is receiving all can lights and the basement isn't really worth mentioning yet. There were only a few light fixture selections needed for the first floor. A semi-flush mount for the entry, a three light chandelier for the foyer, two glass pendants for the dining room, a five light chandelier for the bonus room and a ceiling fan for the living room.

Oh the ceiling fan. I found this one a few months ago and I actually liked it. You see, I hate ceiling fans. I've never once in my life said to myself, "Oh wow, what a nice ceiling fan." However, I have lived in the southern climate my entire life and I understand the need for a ceiling fan. So, if I'm going to have one, it might as well look "relatively" good. And then I found that beauty above. And $269 for a really nice fan isn't a bad deal. But, we decided to have a ceiling fan in every bedroom AND the living room and $269 for five ceiling fans hurt a little bit. 

 
So I spent 3 of my 10 hours looking for a cheaper alternative for one stinking ceiling fan. To no avail. I hated all of them. I finally found one that was available, cheaper and looked somewhat similar to the original I had selected but was still more modern than I wanted. But the finish matched, the light kit matched and the blades were the same finishes.

I finally decided to buy two of my favorites, one for our room and one for the living room and buy three of the cheaper options for the other bedrooms. Problem solved or so I hope. Once they're installed, the real verdict will be in.

The upstairs needed a more extensive selection including multiple semi-flush mounts, wall sconces, pendants and of course the fans.

I feel like everything goes together well and other than the chandeliers on the first floor, it doesn't scream matchy-matchy. And if in 5 or 10 years, their all dated and look awful, we'll have the money to replace them then.