our kitchen & tips for installing west elm pendant lighting

One of my absolute favorite parts about our home is our kitchen. It is open, spacious, functional, basically all the things you would be looking for in a kitchen. The one thing I didn't really love was the lighting. Sometimes I swear that contractors either don't have a clue what is visually appealing or don't really care about placement because where they installed the lighting in this room was so bizarre to me. We have this beautiful island but no light centered above it. Instead there was one way off to the right and another way off to the left. The same style of light was installed over the kitchen sink and all three are what I like to call "boob lights". haha Not my favorite style of flushmounted lighting out there. The style of the chandelier over our kitchen table looked like it would fit well in a hunter's home next to a pair of antlers. Also, not my style. Going hunting is probably the last place you'll find me. haha Anyway, what I am getting at is the lighting was one of the things we wanted to change about this space. And remember how I said back in January that one of our New Year's resolutions this year was a new house project every month, just keeping up with our promises. :) Let me apologize in advance for slightly grainy images throughout this post by the way, but they were all taken on my iPhone because the whole kitchen wouldn't fit in the shot on my 50mm lens! haha

Here are the original light fixtures we had in our kitchen ...

And what they looked like in our kitchen ...

You can see in the above picture on the left, we had already taken down one of the flushmounts. 

Just a quick disclaimer before we get any further into the post ... we are not certified electricians, just a skilled husband and a wife who is pretty great at standing there to hold things up when needed. :)

For above the kitchen sink and island we chose this and these glass pendants from West Elm with their Edison-style light bulbs. 

While they are so beautiful, they were kind of a pain to hang so I have a few tips to share if you are in the market for new lighting and choose this pendant style from West Elm. I originally took detailed pictures to show you the process but after scouring my phone, Nic's phone, both of our computers, basically anywhere they might have been stored, they can not be found. I have a feeling they were deleted at some point in time so instead, a couple of tips only in words it is ...

1. When you get the rope the length that you want it, wrap the remaining length inside the face plate in a spiral shape, taping it down every few inches with electrical tape as you go. When we first tried winding the rope inside the face plate it was IMPOSSIBLE to keep it dow, even when two sets of hands were involved. Electrical tape really did the trick!

2. The screws that both light fixtures come with a really short. Every time we would try to line up each hole on the plates there was always one hole slightly off from the other and the screws were just not long enough to reach through both holes at a slight angle. Buy a few extra bronze screws in a longer length that way they will still match the existing screws (you won't even be able to tell from a distance) but you won't spend five hours holding the darn thing up while someone tries and fails time and time again to get the last tiny screw through both holes!

I can now say they were worth the installation headache because look at how beautiful they look!!! 

By the way, didn't Nic do an incredible job covering up, texturing, and painting the existing light fixture holes that used to be there?! That man has more talents than I can count and despite how handy he thinks he is not, I am always impressed by him.

We decided on this glass pendant lantern for over the kitchen table from World Market and I love it! Truthfully, when we first hung it I wasn't sure if it went well with the other two light fixtures we picked out because it is a different shape and a black finish instead of bronze but it has really grown on me.

A few more touches in the kitchen ...

All of these polaroids on our fridge make me smile! I love adding to the collection. Maybe one day, our entire fridge will be covered in them from all of our memories together. ;)

And last but not least, my beloved shelves. The first of many DIY projects Nic has done for me and I love them more and more with each season that I get to decorate them for. In fact, they no longer look like this because summer just had to make room for fall. ;) And by fall I really mean Halloween ... SO EXCITED!

There you have it, our kitchen with beautiful new lighting! I love it so much!

P.S. This post was not sponsored.