Island Lights

Kitchen lights. I was having a hard time with choosing them. Everything in the stores was gross and I didn't know what I was going to do. But at that time, it was a long way off from needing them.

Then my sister called to say that she had driven by the second hand shop we all like in her town and had seen a nice hanging lamp in the window. She said it was white with orange and yellow fruit slices. Not exactly an encouraging description, but I trust her and she liked it, so I figured I would like it. And if I didn't, well, I didn't have to hang it.

A few weeks later she called and mentioned she hadn't done anything about the lamp. Should she check if it was still available? I said sure.

So a week later she goes to the store and finds it still hanging in the window. It had a sold sign on it. Oh no! But she looked at it closely and the sold sign had an old "hold by" date on it. So she went and asked at the counter and one of the women there happened to know the lady it was being held for. They called her up and no, she didn't want the lamp anymore. She just hadn't called them. Snap! That was Judy buying my lamp. (Thank you, unknown lady, for saving the lamp for me from all the other buyers who didn't ask about the sold sign.)

The lamp is lovely and will be great hanging above the kitchen table, and you will get to see it when Troy hangs it (soon). This is all a back story for the lights that are now mounted above the island.

My mom delivered the lamp from my sister's on one of her visits, and it happened that the next day Mom and I were driving somewhere and stopped at a yard sale. Mom found a few things, and then I saw two lamps like this:

They don't really match the lamp Mom just delivered, but they have the same sort of swirls and I thought they would look good together. There was no price marked and the person there seemed at a loss when I asked for the price. I suggested $5 for the pair, and they took it.

Of course, I couldn't use the lamps in their worn and harvest-gold condition. I took them apart,

and repainted all the metal parts a bright yellow.

Let me just comment here that spray painting and I don't really get along. All the fix-it shows and blogs talk about spray painting like it is the easiest thing in the world; such a simple transformation, etc, etc. Well, I don't know what my problem is, but I do not find it easy and simple. But anyway, I got it done and it's good enough for something hanging up at the ceiling.

Troy got them installed a couple weeks ago and put them on a three-way switch so we can control them from either main entrance to the room.

We have found that having just these two lights on is the perfect amount of light for general use. The other overhead lights are for when we're setting up the operating room (ha ha).

At some point in the process I started to get really worried that the lights were not going to look good in the room, and definitely weren't going to look good with the other ceiling lights. But once they were up, I liked them. It'll be even better when the other light is up. (It goes without saying that it will be even better when the ceiling is done, but that will be a long while yet.)