Lighten Up: Selecting Lighting (on a Budget)

I recently visited one of my favorite furniture-and-all-things-design stores in Los Angeles: H.D. Buttercup. One of the perks of living on the West Side is that I've got incredible design resources not far from home. HD Buttercup, which is housed in a huge warehouse space that used to be a bakery/factory, is sort of like Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware and some funky Melrose stores on steroids. And, as luck would have it, it's on the way home from our gym. Yippee.

It does tend to be on the pricier side, but it's still a great place to get inspiration and ideas. Case in point: These cute dining room table lights that look like they're made from funky baskets. Cool, right?

Or, how about this chandelier? Looks like they took a metal chandelier and wrapped it in jute. If I had more free time, I would probably do that. Right after I make a mermaid tail for my daughter out of duck tape!  : )

Lovely bedroom bling.

And, then, of course, a simple side table lamp. This design affords an airy, open feel. 

Did I mention that I love chandeliers? I'd have one in every room if I could squeeze them in.

The delicate crystal looks incredible above the rustic wood and sturdy marble of this island. 

Simple and nice.

If I knew how to weld, I might be tempted to craft this.

See an old bird cage at a garage sale, don't be so quick to pass it by. They make such cute chandeliers. The crows shown here seem to like them!

I did mention we're on a budget, right? So, here's a chandelier that we'll be repurposing in our renovated home. It used to be in our daughter's bedroom. It was only $34 at Ikea. We love Ikea, especially their $4 Swedish meatballs.

And to off-set the feminine lines of the chandelier shown above, we've got this more modern, slightly industrial glass bell-jar shaped pendant from West Elm. I have two of these, but probably will only have room for one in the kitchen. We had intended to hang them as a pair over our large kitchen island—but we nixed the kitchen island.

Here are those pendants placed in a room for size reference. I chose this style because they update our space with the "modern twist" we're going for, but just as important--they'll allow light to  move through them. The glass should look great in front of the stone wall in the kitchen.

When I saw this closet photo, which we are trying to replicate in our master bedroom, I tried desperately to find these cool hanging bulbs.

While I couldn't find the exact same ones, SchoolHouse Electric came close with this model. We'll hang two of these in our new rustic walk-in closet.

Good old Lamps Plus provided this barn-style light, which we've used above the French doors on the outside of our house. 

And we got a little wild with this hi-tech robot-arm looking task light. Three of these will be installed into a reclaimed beam that's been attached to the wall above our sink and main prep counter in the new kitchen. We just had so much rustic stone and old wood in our kitchen that I had to go with something a little bit more contemporary to balance it out. Fingers crossed they look OK. But, they are certainly functional. You can adjust these three different ways and they supply targeted light to the counter below. At night, we probably won't even need the overhead kitchen lights. 

This is the lamp style we've had in our old bedroom, and we'll reuse them in our new master bedroom. We'll update with these linen shades.

Since we're on the topic of lighting, I thought I should include this inspiration photo. When I saw this bathroom, I knew I wanted to replicate that alcove shelf holding the lantern. A bathroom is the perfect place. And when there's a candle burning inside, it can cast such a pretty glow especially when the lantern has an interesting pattern to reflect.

So before they closed up the kid's water closet with dry wall, I had them save this spot centered opposite the toilet. This alcove will be all plastered like the one in the image above and should make a nice place for this Moroccan style lantern from Marshall's. We'll be painting it "greige" first, so no bright blue here. I have one more of these lanterns, just don't know where to place it yet.

If you'd like to get inspired with some great design elements, be sure to check out HDButtercup.com.
Have a great week!