One of the cosmetic things I wanted to do at the Church Street house was to replace most of the lighting.

I’ve talked about this before, but the vanity lights in the bathroom were all gross and rusty, but style wise, they actually kinda work so I decided just to clean and spray paint the metal. I replaced the glass covers in one of the bathrooms because the old ones were a weird yellow color that I didn’t like. I’m still not in love with any of the covers but they don’t offend me anymore.

So here’s a before picture of one of the lights.

Picture of rusty vanity lights

I eventually figured out that the lengths were super uneven because the one on the right was only hanging by one screw.

Here they are after the updates.

Not bad, right? (Don’t comment on my photography skills.)

One of the bathrooms also got a vent fan added to help manage shower steam and the other bathroom got a light added above the shower to keep it from feeling dark and creepy while bathing.

The primary bedroom already had dual ceiling fans so I just left those as is.

Picture of a small ceiling fan

The other two bedrooms had old lights that I failed to take a picture of, but they were along these lines. Apparently I also failed to sell all my old stuff on Etsy.

We replaced them with these ceiling fans (I find it extremely hard to sleep without either a fan, or excessive air conditioning, or an open window if the weather permits).

For some reason having to do with the creative installation of the light box used for one of the fans, we weren’t able to get it to mount perfectly flush with the ceiling, so we had to add some cardboard shims to keep the fan from wobbling when it runs. One of the many perks that come with old houses.

I haven’t made any updates to the lights in the living room and kitchen but I think I want to do a tiffany style light or a light made out of an old globe for above the kitchen island.

I lied, I actually got new pulls for all the ceiling fans in order to make them easy to adjust without remotes, which would inevitably get lost or broken.

Picture of fancy ceiling fan pulls

So they’re not the fanciest, but they’re cute and I appreciate that even in the middle of the night, I know which pull chain to use to adjust the fan speed.

But if you want fancy, check out the dining room chandelier.

Picture of a crystal cake chandelier

I actually managed to get the base installed pretty quickly but a friend and I spent probably 3 hours hanging each individual crystal.

As payback for the simplicity of installing the chandelier, I finally got around to replacing the lights on the front porch, which was an adventure to say the least.

Picture of a hidden light box

You can see that the front of the light box is actually buried 2.5 inches into the wall, whereas it should be pretty much flush with the wall. Another old house perk. And yes, that is what our electrical wiring looks like.

So I had to get creative with extra long screws in order to actually mount the new lights (similar), and I was thankful that the lights I bought are not very heavy.

My favourite though, are the lamps I’ve managed to find at various thrift stores.

Did you see the little elephant pull chain?

Did you see it?

3 responses to “Lighting at the Church Street House”

  1. I love that chandelier! What fun to shop for lamps at thrift stores. Is the wiring in them in good shape?

    1. The visible wiring is all in great shape.

  2. digging the fan pulls, chandelier and continually impressed by your knowledge!

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