Kitchen renovation: Lighting

The kitchen renovations have begun! If you recall from last week, my Mad Men kitchen is undergoing a serious makeover. First step: lighting.

Lighting can be a relatively easy tweak to your kitchen that makes a big difference–if you know how to swap out lighting. Changing light fixtures is simple and you can learn how it’s done through online guides and videos. The most important advice: make sure to switch the electricity to the room off before you get started.

Here’s what we did:

•Moved the black-iron light fixture over our kitchen table into the dining room and took out the gold chandelier (I’m just not a chandelier person).

•Put in a simple, brushed nickel overhead light with clean lines from Home Depot ($29.88).

•Took out the florescent lighting near the refrigerator with track lighting from IKEA ($49.99).

Hitches:

•We discovered that the lighting wasn’t in the middle of the kitchen so we couldn’t center our lighting either. Solution: the movable track lighting looks intentional placed farther away from the sink. On my list: putty the extra hole with sheetrock compound and repaint the ceiling.

•Originally, we forked over a little extra money to buy vintage light bulbs. Even though we loved the look, the light bulb just didn’t give enough light–even the 60-watt bulb. Solution: We returned the light bulb and we’re sticking with regular bulbs (hey, they’re less pricey anyway).

Your turn: Have you ever changed the lighting in your kitchen? What inexpensive fixes have made a big difference in your kitchen?