With the help of some visiting friends (Yay, free labor!), we made an exciting change in our kitchen last weekend.  You see, there was this enormous ceiling fan in the kitchen.  It was nice to have a breeze in the kitchen, sure, but not as nice when you needed to get something out of the upper cabinets and hit your head on the huge moving fan blades.  (Two hits on record.)

It was shiney and gold and bright.  Bright was the winning point.  I assumed we would get rid of it someday, and Scott assumed that its working condition meant it was a keeper.  Until it became broken.  I’m happy to report that I wasn’t the fan breaker, and it was a complete accident.  Everyone wins!  Scott didn’t have to replace a working fan, and I did indeed get to replace it.

Our kitchen is in better shape than that these days, I just didn’t take a ton of “before” pictures of the fan.  I mostly tried to ignore it.  It doesn’t look so bad there, actually, but do you know what’s better?

Oil-rubbed bronze with mercury glass, that’s what!  And the best part of it is that it still puts out mega wattage.  Trust me.  Or you can see it for yourself:

It might look like a bright blob of light in this picture, but I love that bright blob.  I’m not a lighting expert, that’s for sure.  I do know a few things though.  The ceiling looks taller with  a light closer to the ceiling.  That fan took up a chunk of visual space.  And I personally think that the mercury glass adds a nice touch of authentic flair to the colonial-style house.  Woohoo!

P.S.  Like our moving box island?  It’s growing on me.

P.P.S.  Want a mercury glass light fixture for your house?  Well, it did cost the same as painting our cabinets and new hardware for the cabinets combined ($250, Pottery Barn Brantley Antique Mercury Glass Semi-flushmount).  Thanks to a generous Christmas gift card that I hoarded for two years and a gift from my parents, it was free to us.  I tried shopping around for a better deal, and I kept coming back to this light.  Thanks, gifters!