When given the chance to makeover the lighting in any room of my house, the choice was easy. We’ve lived here almost seven years, seven years of bemoaning the sad state of lighting in our kitchen, which the builder only chose to give five little can lights.
So desperately dim is the lighting at night (thankfully there’s plenty of natural light during the day) that at one point I took matters into my own hands and replaced those indoor floodlights with the brightest bulbs I could find. When one of them shattered and smoked, I knew I was stuck with less light or else I’d catch the house on fire.
The bulbs on the right and over the kitchen sink are GE Reveal bulbs that I installed when other bulbs burned out. I’m glad that this project gave me an excuse to replace them all! I’ve been too frugal to take down bulbs that still work.
First I went to the Indoor & Outdoor Flood Light section at Walmart, where I bought two 65 watt indoor floodlights. (See the full shop here.)
I prefer Reveal because the light is so clean. It looks better in pictures, too. Most photos taken indoors at night have a yellow color cast that needs removed in editing. Annoying.
The photo above and the graphic on the right should explain why I love Reveal bulbs.
My husband and I brainstormed what else we should do in our kitchen. Although improving the quality of light was a good start, we still needed more lighting. Option #1 included installing four additional recessed can lights and a drop-down pendant light over the kitchen sink. Option #2 involved hanging a ceiling fan with lights.
I asked friends on Facebook and got favorable responses from those who have kitchen ceiling fans. Maybe I wouldn’t avoid using the oven in the summer (or bring in a fan from another room) with more air circulation. When my husband said that Option #2 required less work and we found a fan we liked for $60, the decision was easy.
Back to Walmart for 40 watt Reveal bulbs for the ceiling fan!
After he plotted the center point between the can lights, my husband cut a hole in the ceiling and climbed into the attic to mount and wire all the stuff involved in hanging and powering a ceiling fan. There’s a lot to be said for marrying a man who can operate power tools.
I think the brushed steel mesh light kit looks very kitchen-y, like mini colanders. The blades are 36″, fairly small for a ceiling fan. I want a breeze, but nothing too overpowering in this space. Our kitchen glows: it’s so much brighter now!
I know I’ll enjoy cooking more in the evenings with the extra light and the fan.
Participating in this project has revealed (pun intended) how much energy you can save with energy efficient light bulbs. I chose to use G.E. Reveal instead of G.E. Energy Smart bulbs, but the graphic above shows how much money we could save just from using Energy Smart for those five recessed lighting bulbs. Click the pic to determine your savings.
Saving energy is challenging with a house full of people. We constantly remind the kids to turn off lights when they leave a room, especially bathroom lights, which they tend to leave on all night.
What ways have you found to save energy?
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I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE. Opinions expressed are my own. #CBias #SocialFabric
Our entire house is GE lit 🙂 My hubby works for GE (not the lighting division lol) and we buy a lot GE products. He could get a discount on just about all of it but usually forgets. Fortunately, the savings has been great and so the discounts forgotten haven’t been too missed.
Love the fan. Would love that in my *hot* kitchen!!
Blossom, that’s a pretty sweet discount (provided you remember to use it)!
Love the make over – so much more light….. plus great for the environment too!
Yes, it really is so much brighter now. I can’t believe it took us so many years to think of this!
Love it Dawn!
Great fix, love the colander light ‘shades’ 🙂
More importantly, I must say you have the most beautiful Profile pic ever! So envious cuz I’m so not photogenic for such things!!
Let’s just say I’m not a total amateur at Photoshop. 😉
I love the mesh on the lights … I’ve never seen anything like it. It looks awesome! I’d love to find something like that for my son’s room.
Randi, we found it at Home Depot. It got lots of great reviews online. Some people have used this same ceiling fan in multiple rooms.
Dawn, this is beautiful!! It totally changed the look of the whole room, and I love the fan and the little colanders on the end too 🙂
Who’d have thought we’d find a fan that looked like it has colanders on it?
I just LOVE your kitchen…(can you see me drool?)
SO smart to have a ceiling fan in the kitchen.
Kathy, it’s really awesome! I’m so glad we installed it before summer really kicks in.
Love this! What a fun campaign! I’m with CB too. 🙂
Totally random question – I’m thinking of putting a fan in our kitchen too. Do you know the name and model of that one? It appears to be Hampton Bay? I love the light fixtures on it. A lot of the ones I’m seeing that are short enough to not look strange in a kitchen don’t have bulbs like that but just one single light fixture, if that makes sense. I’d love to know what kinda this one is.