Pepper Design Blog

Hallway Makeover: Lighting Ideas

Our home has a pretty big hallway in the center of the house:

Which is part of the reason we used a corridor of the old hallway to create a second bathroom and pantry, and I’m pretty sure we’ll cut into the hallway even further when it’s time to redo the master bedroom and bath.

The space gets a really great bathing of sunlight because of a large skylight, and it’s also where I used painter’s tape earlier this year to create my own wallpaper design and chalkboard fun area for Liv.

These days the little seating area is gone (I’m looking for a less bulky solution) and the chalkboard chair rail area has turned into a full blown art wall.

The above photo actually brings me to the purpose of this hallway lighting post – I would really love to switch out that above light with something fantastic! The hallway is regularly used by us and guests alike, as it leads to a bathroom, Liv’s room and our bedroom. I’m thinking something oversize? or extra bold? Maybe a store bought solution (if I find it at a great price) or maybe a DIY version inspired by images from my hallway Pinterest board. Here are a couple of examples:

Ooooh the beaded options are intriguing, and how great are the various basket/wood shades! Or perhaps a store bought cone or farmhouse light that’s then painted gold on the inside? I also love the idea of messing around with some sort of transparent plastic to create some unusual shape. I’m all about creating some sort of lighting from scratch, here’s a link to the capiz shell light that I made for the guestroom/office.

Our current light isn’t horrible, actually I really like the style and I’ll try to find a good home for it elsewhere in the house.

Here are a few Ikea inspirations:

For a slightly better visual, here they are photoshopped into our hallway:

First up, something made of a transparent white plastic – kind of fun?

Maybe not first in my book but it’s different.

The next is along those same lines:

I love the idea of a black shade in here! Though I wonder if all of that excellent light in the hallway will become blocked or filtered, depending on the type of shade used. A gold lining would be a neat accent:

I would love to bring an organic basket texture into this space. I love the basket light on my Pinterest board even more, but that one’s a little pricey. Could be a neat DIY:

More ideas! I really love these hallways:

Any thoughts or ideas? I’m hoping to make up my mind on this this weekend to cross one more item off of the to-do list. But there are just so many choices .

Dining Room Update: The Lighting Upgrade

Last I left you, we were starting on the dining room from almost scratch.

This is so fun! This room is in need of almost everything less most large furniture items.

Let’s talk a moment about that new light because she was quite the adventure. The original chandelier was beautiful, ornate and most likely original to the house (meaning it was 77 years old).

She was clearly showing her wear though. Everything from missing pieces to really, really bad wiring.

My favorite accent has got to be the faux dripping gold candle wax .

Despite it all though I still think it is such a cool piece and that it should stay with the house. Maybe I can fix it up and make it more of an accent light in Liv’s big girl room (whenever we decide to take that on), or perhaps keep it neatly wrapped up in storage so that we can pass the original lighting on to future owners.

What I did know though, was that a new light would be an instant, updated impact to the entire space.

After much pendant hunting, I had narrowed my ideas down to:

I love the big round Eden pendant that we installed in Liv’s room – this has to be my favorite go-to in terms of price and look, and I thought that this version with a natural linen shade would fit the dining room even better. I was also drawn to something a bit more rectangular, like this West Elm shade pendant or this beautiful capiz pendant (so stunning! but Kev was not on board). Finally, I thought a light with multiple drum shades might just fill up the space well, like this one.

After much searching and much envisioning and much research, I finally fell for the West Elm short drum natural linen pendant shade. It didn’t hurt that on one of my random visits to the store, I found it marked down a third of the price! I haven’t seen that discount since but it was clearly a sign that she was the right modern pendant for the space.

I was very keen on the light, but not so keen on the white cable and silver wire/canopy that suspended the light from the ceiling (a little too modern for the space) – not sure why the above shows black because it’s definitely white! The pendant had to be converted to a wired version rather than a plugin, so in that process I opted to nix the West Elm mounting and added the shade to the oil rubbed bronze rods (just two rather than the three stacked 12″ rods it came with) and canopy of this Lowe’s pendant:

A pricey upgrade but definitely worth it. The new bronze mounting fits the Spanish-style space (with those rounded walls and inset ceilings) but the size and shape of the shade makes a huge modern difference.

Using a kitchen pendant light to update another ceiling fixture is an easy and affordable tip, though I must warn that we got this one wrong on the first try. I originally bought a candelabra mini pendant light that emitted about 30W – aka not enough to eat your dinner by! This monster shade needed a real deal light base (like the size of a usual light bulb) and we reinstalled the pendant again with the right sized light mount (thanks Andrew!). Now something like this option or this option, while not as big as I wanted for the space, would have provided three or four light bulbs for the large shade and would have cut down on this problem all together.

Another reason it doesn’t emit as much light as a usual chandelier?

The bottom of the shade is covered with a see-through insert that diffuses any light that comes out of the chandelier. You need as much watts or lumens (the LED version) as possible!

This all wraps up with my love for drum pendant lights, whether you hang them high in the center of a room like the Eden in Liv’s nursery:

Or low over a table, like the new linen short drum in the dining room!

Though I do wish it could be a half a rod lower – just need to learn how to rethread rod iron rods .

Read the full dining room story by starting here: the before!

DIY Block Print Fabric Lampshades

I really love the unique and customizable look of fabric lampshades and after posting several of my favorites last month, as well as a how-to by All Things Lovely, I decided to give the project a spin myself.

I ordered this great hand stamped block print fabric from HomeSweet on Etsy and found two replacement lampshades at a local lighting store. All I can say is easy, easy, easy! I was so impressed with how quickly I whipped both of these out, and I really love the blue with my bedroom.

To see my custom creation journey and follow step-by-step, follow the jump!

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