Pendant Lights
HOME RENOVATION
As a follow-up the live edge slab bar I made, I wanted to cover the white drywall column you can see in the image here with the same hardwood I used on the stairs, as well as making a wood box above it with hanging pendant lights with Edison bulbs in mason jars.
If you hover your mouse over the image here, you can see a before/after of what the transformation looks like. I think it really helps to frame the entire space in that beautiful dark wood.
With lights the two important factors are the Kelvin temperature which affects the color (warm or cold) and the Lumens which affect how bright they are. Trouble is, it's really hard to get bulbs with just the right Lumens. The solution is to have a dimmer switch on the lights.
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You can see on the wood beam in the image here the dimmer switch I installed, which allows us to dial in the exact brightness we want for the lights in order to get that romantic "restaurant style" ambience. That results in transforming the whole space with light which I a really important aspect of home design.
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Hover to see
The first step was to create the box to house the lights. My plan was to mount this using a French cleat, like I did with the TV mount. The box is open in the back so we can access the lights. I cut 45 degree miter edges to join the wood together, and the temporarily inserted wood blocks to clamp it in place while the wood glue dried.
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In addition to re-wiring the lights, and adding a junction box that you can see here, I also threaded the cords through aluminum poles so they would look straight, rather than the crooked wired it came with.
To get the light switch into the wood column, I cut a hole for the junction box and switch to fit into, and then routed a trench for the wire to travel along, which I then made a removable cover for, the goal being that everything is accessible, and safe.
It was a challenging project because I had to learn about electrical wiring, but along the way I also learned about how important lighting is in creating spaces. Below you can check out the result, viewed both from the kitchen side, and from the side of the bar in the dining room.
Since I was having so much fun with lights, I also revamped the colored LED lights in the living room, using Bluetooth to control them via my iPhone so I can dial in any combination of colors I want to create different moods for movie night, or even animate the lights to transform our living room into a Karaoke lounge.