New Lighting for Dining Room & Kitchen

Ok, things finally feel like they are coming together in our "new" house.   I'm sure you have heard or experienced this before, but wow, what a difference lighting can make in a space.  

After much much deliberation, I ordered the Europhase Piquito pendant lights in black. 

Even though I knew the measurements, I was pleasantly surprised at their substantial size when we took them out of the box.  I know now how these can be sold for hundreds less than the Tom Dixon originals.  They are not a heavy hammered brass.  In their defense though,  it's hard to tell the difference once they are hanging.  They look like they cost much more.  The gold interior puts off a warm glow that is romantic!

(When the kitchen cabinets get painted white, the black pendants will really pop.  Also to-do, add new 

  [hopefully brass] hardware and change out other appliances to match our stainless refrigerator.)

 We added a few of these white bar stools to the island and I love that we now have the perfect hang out area for watching Neto cook. Ha! They are surprisingly comfortable and the backs don't come over the counter, which I really like.

Our dining light had been bugging me ever since we installed in several months ago.  I never even showed it here on VivaCindy because I was always planning to change them. (black fabric with gold interior)

Well, it never happened and now they will be listed on Craigslist.  I knew it wasn't right in the space, but with the new pendant lights, it was really wrong. 

I had been searching for a simple drum pendant that would not break the bank, but the largest I was finding was only 25" across.   Friday morning I was doing a product search on Houzz (awesome resource, by the way) and found the oversized equator pendant lamp from Cb2.

It was much less expensive than anything I had seen and the 32 in size sold me right away.  I called the store to make sure they had one in stock and drove there to pick it up.  Ernesto installed it that night.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, what a difference lighting makes! 

We also replaced our ugly ceiling fan in the living room.  I was actually against replacing the ceiling fan all together and wanted to add a cool fixture, but Ernesto likes to clear out the hot peppers when he's cooking so I  searched out a fan I could live with.  This one from Overstock is sleek & simple.  Plus, with a coupon it was only $130. Done and done!

We are still in search of a little light for the powder room and the master bath light fixture/s.  The bathroom construction is finished, other than the light, so I will be posting pictures of that real soon.