Don’t be afraid to mix and match ceiling fans and light kits!!!

After

Before

Hey Homies!

It’s pretty obvious by looking at the photo above that this antiqued yellowish chandelier does not go with this modern gloss white ceiling fan.   Or does it?  Hmmmmm?

I ran into a design dilemma recently.  Yes, another one!    The dilemma started because I needed a ceiling fan in an upper story bedroom to help with circulation, but a chandelier was the perfect fixture to bring in the bling that this room needed.  Now, ceiling fan chandeliers are not a new thing, but the dilemma was that I needed a “mini” ceiling fan, with “mini” blades, and I couldn’t find a “mini” ceiling fan/chandelier.

So here’s what I did.  I bought this white Monte Carlo 20” mini ceiling fan .  Check out the little 7 inch blades.  Aren't they cute!?!  

http://www.amazon.com/Monte-Carlo-4MC20WH-20-Inch-4-Blade/dp/accessories/B0036VWK08

But instead of buying the light kit that comes with it, I found this Pretty In Pink universal light kit.  It did say “universal,” so I crossed my fingers and ordered it. 

http://www.lampsplus.com/products/pretty-in-pink-pull-chain-ceiling-fan-light-kit__53567.html

When I got everything unpacked, I knew that the color of the chandelier would not work.  It was much more yellow than it looked in the picture on line. 

It was nothing that a little spray paint couldn’t fix though.

When painting lamps or light fixtures, I always use painter’s tape to cover the sticker that lists the maximum size bulb that can be used in the fixture, since it can be dangerous to use the wrong light bulbs.    I remember at our last house, the light over the tub would always blink on and off and we thought that, either there was a short in it, or we had a ghost.  It turns out that the previous owner had used a higher wattage bulb than was suggested.  Once we put in the correct bulb, we never had another problem with it.  So much for the ghost theory.  LOL

A good way to paint a chandelier is to hang it.  I happen to have a tree that works great for this purpose.

Okay, back to the ceiling fan.  After removing the old fixture, painting the ceiling (your eyes are not deceiving you, the ceiling is purple, but not that purple), and adding the medallion, the mini fan was a breeze (pun intended, hehe) to install.  Well, there was this one little problem I just remembered but I think it was the medallion’s fault.  After connecting the wires, I didn’t have enough strength to push the fan up into the bracket and turn the housing to lock it into place.  Luckily, as always, hubby came to the rescue.  Thanks, muscle man! xoxo   I think the additional thickness of the medallion was what made it so tight and hard to turn.

The universal light kit was a cinch to install. Both the fan and light kit came with easy-to-follow instructions.  As with most chandeliers, the hardest part was putting on all of the ornament.  I will say the illustration for the ornaments was not as good as it should have been, and I ended up having to study a few photos on the Internet to figure it out. 

Pretty cute, huh?  Who’d a thunk it?

This mini fan chandelier is the perfect combination of all of the other elements going into this room, marrying modern with antique.

Are you wondering why I needed the “mini” blades since there appears to be plenty-o-room for a regular sized fan? Well, it’s a surprise! And I’m so excited about it!!!! And can’t wait to show you soon!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by Homies!

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Closet + Organizer = LOVE

Hey Homies, it’s been a while!  I’ve been busy and I wanted to take a minute to share one of the many projects I’ve been working on lately. 

Do you hate your closet?  Well, hate no more……it’s an easy fix!!!

One of the first projects of this room remodel had to be the closet.  The closet was previously outfitted with one measly wire shelf.  Yes, ONE!  And wire shelves really, really bug me in general.    Have you ever seen the movie Mommy Dearest?  Just kidding, I’m not that bad.    :-)

The main problem with this particular wire shelf was that the hangers cannot slide all the way across the bar because of those pesky dividers, making hanging clothes, or even just looking through the clothes to find something to wear, a chore.   Another problem was that there was so much wasted space in the top of the closet.  That’s valuable real estate, baby!  Lastly, one shelf was just not enough space to hang all of the clothes that need to go into this closet.  This is what the closet looked like AFTER we went through it and picked out the stuff that no longer fit! 

This bedroom was painted a light pink four years ago, which was perfect for a 3 year old.  The new design, however, for the now much older 7 year old calls for “Hot” pink walls, per the diva.  I did try to sway said diva from hot pink, but her mind was made up.  In the end, I really wanted to give her what SHE wanted.  It IS her room after all.  So, I figured out a way to calm the room down AND give her the hot pink she wanted, and I can’t wait to show it off at a later date.  So, don’t freak out when you see the hot pink.   Trust me, it will look great!  I hope!!!  :-)

Soooooooooooo, since I had to paint the closet anyway, and since I did not want to paint AROUND the wire shelf (although I’ll admit that I have cheated and done that before, like when I painted it light pink, but I was in a time crunch), it was the perfect time to get rid of that wire shelf and maximize the storage.  At least that was the excuse I used.

I shopped around for closet organizers and decided to go with Lowe’s Allen + Roth line seen here: 

http://www.lowes.com/SearchCatalogDisplay?Ntt=allen+roth+closet&storeId=10151&N=0&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&rpp=32

I was originally going with another cheaper option, but after reading some not-so-flattering reviews, I decided to bite the bullet and go with the solid wood (MDF) stuff instead.   There goes the budget!!  GRRRRRR!!!  I’m confident it will save money and time in the long run though.

 So after spackle.........................

                       ......................................and paint









 

……installing the new closet was a breeze!!! 


Before the closet went in, the old baseboard was removed.  This allowed the closet tower to sit flush against the wall.  Once the closet was installed, the beautiful new 5 inch baseboard was installed. 

The original plan was to use this closet tower for some of the toys previously stored in the bottom of the closet.  Then, I came up with another solution for the toys which I will reveal in a later post.  This shelving unit ended up being filled with  jewelry, purses, hair accessories, and additional clothing from a dresser in the room, which opened up much needed storage in other parts of the room.  It just made more sense to have all the clothing and accessories together, and all the toys together. 

The closet tower does come unassembled, but  with very easy-to-follow instructions.  The two drawers were an additional cost and also had to be assembled.  The bars can mount directly to the tower since the sides are solid and thick, but I wanted to utilize the space above the tower with a third clothing rod.  So, once the tower was in place, I screwed an 8’ melamine board to the right side of the tower.  The melamine board goes all the way to the ceiling of the closet, giving me a surface to screw the top rod to.

Since there was not a stud in the side wall on the right to attach the bars to, instead of using wall anchors,  I decided to cut some scrap wood, paint it bright white to match the tower and all the other trim in the room (looks pink in photo), and attach the the bars to the wood for a stronger hold.  Chin-ups anyone?

Previously, the closet had 59 inches of wire shelf to hang clothing on.  Each of these rods is 35 inches long (I had to cut them to size), so the new closet now has 105 inches of rod to hang clothing on, almost DOUBLE the hanging space.  Since the top bar is hard to reach, it is used to store seasonal clothing.   

In case you’re wondering, there are standards for closet rod heights.  Obviously, adult clothing is longer than children’s clothing, so this needs to be taken into consideration when designing a closet.  I did push the limits just a tad on this closet, since it is a child’s room, in order to get the third rod in at the top. 

The little diva LOVES her new closet and it is now a pleasure to put away the clean laundry since there is so much room!  The only problem is that now she thinks we need to go shopping to fill the closet up again!!!!

Since I did go with the more expensive option, this project ended up costing just over $350.  The tower alone was $199 and the drawers were $50 each.

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your closet, I hope this inspires you to do so!   :-)

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