To make room for our DIY-ed clothespin light, first we had to give the current fixture the ol’ heave-ho:
Well, not literally. Since there’s actually something kinda charmingly retro about that puppy, we wanted to give him a new life somewhere else in the house instead of sealing his fate (aka: donating him to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore). That’s where this hallway that leads to the guest room, hall bath, playroom, and nursery comes in:
Clearly our hallway screams “nothing to see here folks, move along” for the time being, so there’s certainly a lot to be improved upon. But our attention kept going to this 18″ wide (I’ll pause while you digest just how wide that is) behemoth of a swirly ceiling-fan-ish glass shade. This picture does not do justice to its sheer size and resemblance to a giant serving dish for a twenty pound turkey or five million brownies in a pyramid. Be careful not to stare too long, you might fall under its hypnotic spell…
Are you getting sleepy? Well, if you aren’t – apparently I was. Because moments after turning off the power, taking that honking twice-as-large-as-the-soon-to-be-installed-light down, and readying myself to install the smaller and more streamlined retro laundry fixture in its place… this happened:
No sooner did the loud shatter stop ringing in my ears did I hear this from the other room: “John, PLEASE tell me was the old light.”
Sadly I couldn’t. As I raised the metal base of the laundry light towards its new home in the hall ceiling, I failed to notice the glass cover had accidentally come with it – barely hanging on by one screw. Call it working too fast. Call it butterfingers. Call it errant flashbacks from cleaning up after someone who pooped in the bath that morning (hint: it wasn’t me, Sherry, or Burger). Whatever my excuse, this current all-my-fault situation…
… was giving me crazy deja vu to this previous all-my-fault situation…
The lesson here? Don’t let me near anything fragile in a hallway. Ever.
The other lesson? Bless Home Depot for selling similar glass bulb covers for seven dollars. A quick trip out to the store followed by some much-more-careful light fixture installation left us with this (don’t mind the ugly attic pull-string in the background- we’ll have to upgrade that):
It’s not quite the same as the original (which had subtle frosting on all sides, whereas this has a more distinct white band and a translucent base) but we don’t really mind the slight difference. Sherry’s considering the whole spray-frost option down the line if she changes her mind, but we’re happy to live with it as-is for now. And at least finding something similar spared us from having to reinstall the old light again. Which is basically the DIY version of the walk of shame.
We’ll be the first to admit that the new fixture hardly qualifies as a “room transformation,” but maybe we’ll do something fun with it down the line – like paint the base a fun color, or add stripes a la this $75 version from Schoolhouse Electric:
We learned from our other hallway (where we hung a ton of frames) that this type of small space can actually be a fun spot to do something semi-dramatic. So we’ve talked about DIYing some wainscoting or some other architectural detail (and maybe even using a bold-ish color above the rail). The only challenge will be working around all the other wall acne. Like this oh-so-attractive doorbell for example:
Maybe when it comes time, we’ll shop for a new doorbell at this place…
Random side note: when I briefly studied improv comedy at the Upright Citizen Brigade Theatre in New York, that girl was in my class. Clearly we followed similar paths in life.
Oh look, now I’m all sidetracked. Where was I? Oh yeah, apparently I break stuff. You?
Carolyn says
Tragic!!! But that SNL doorbell skit is hilarious. We had it on our tivo for quite awhile and were the annoying people who insist that their friends watch it when they come over as if they could appreciate it as much… :)
Kristen says
HELP! We have a doorbell chimebox that looks similar. We are painting our hallway right now (this evening), and I will not be putting it back up as is. Do you think a coat of spraypaint would work? Or do you know of somewhere to buy just the cover? The doorbell still works fine and we aren’t ready to deal with replacing the entire thing and messing with the wires just yet. I just need to make it a little less hideous….
YoungHouseLove says
We’ve heard about both those solutions here in the comments (they both sounded like they worked out well) so maybe give them a try or scroll back for more info on this post’s comments? Good luck!
xo,
s
Mary says
Last night I was working in my office when i heard a sickening crash.. my beautiful 3-panel indian carved wood room divider that i found on craigslist for $60 (!!!) had fallen over and smacked into a table, causing it to crack in about seven places. it’s somewhat fixable but i can’t even look at it right now (just too painful). i’ve been using it to hide my boyfriend’s stationary bike in a corner when it’s not in use, and i’m pretty sure he didn’t fold the panels enough to keep it from falling over. he denies negligence.
anyway. glad i could vent about breaking stuff :)
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, so sorry! I feel your pain.
xo,
s
Marie B. says
John, your posts make me laugh out loud. Seriously. My husband keeps asking me what’s so funny. Thanks for sharing your hilarious life…jk…thanks for sharing in such a funny way! : )
Jamie says
Nah…my husband breaks things.
We have an awesome old light cover in our kitchen. When we remodeled our kitchen last year I decided I loved the retro-ness of it and I needed to keep it. It’s very similar to the one you…ahem…broke ;)
Here’s our light! (Ignore the ugly ceiling…this isn’t our “forever” house): http://www.flickr.com/photos/jbentley/4884730629/in/set-72157624584751425
YoungHouseLove says
That is a cool fixture! Glad you kept it.
-John
Kim says
Seriously one of my favorite SNL sketches of all time. I still sometimes wake up my husband by going “Ding Dong! WhaaAaaa??” or from Car Honks and More on a Sunday “Hello Jesus! We’re coming to your house!” or just for any situation “Ding dong! Ceramic animals live here! Hi lo!”
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, the “hi-lo” is so good. Ah, SNL. Good stuff.
xo,
s
sarah says
i LOVE that lighting company…best ever.
Kasey March says
I was junking in Nicholson, PA and saw your old light! I actually thought to myself, “I wish I could call John and Sherry and find out if they want me to pick it up.”
This blog is so conversational I feel like I know you two. Kudos.
P.S. I did not buy the light
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, how sweet of you! I bet we’ll bump into our old light friend someday. And if the price is right we’ll buy him! Haha.
xo,
s
Lindsey T says
Bahhh, this happened to us on Monday! The fixture fell when hubs was changing the bulb. Glass everywhere, it rolled down the stair case, shattering more and more with each roll and it resulted in an inch long and 1/4″ WIDE cut on his hand. John’s pretty luck that he dodged an injury. Us..not so lucky! Needless to say, there’s still no replacement fixture…!
Randa says
Hey guys! I searched your blog to find this entry, because of the “new doorbell” skit on it. Did you know that Jenny Slate (the actress with whom John was in class in NY’s Upright Citizen Brigade Theatre) created “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”? http://www.youtube.com/user/MARCELTHESHELL
And here’s an interview w/ Brian Williams, if you haven’t seen it yet:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/13/brian-williams-marcel-shell_n_1146200.html
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, isn’t that cool! She’s hilarious!
xo,
s
Randa says
With a capital H! :) I saw the interview yesterday, so had to share.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, so funny.
xo,
s
Melanie says
Thanks to you guys again for saving the day. I’ve been struggling to find the last 3 hallway lights for the new house, and so of course I turned to you guys. I think I found what we need via Schoolhouse Electric (which of course didn’t come up previously in any of my searches for lights). Thank you so very much for all that you do!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, so glad! Good luck with everything!
xo,
s
Elle Marie says
I think I may just have been inspired to -finally- do something about our own sad-looking doorbell – we have a 1980s yellowed beige electric doorbell that is in quite poor condition (the electric tone crackles/doesn’t always sound, can’t be heard from upstairs 80% of the time, looks atrocious). I just priced out replacing it with something that would suit the placement and have a mechanical chime (no more crackly speaker) – new outdoor button and chime, under $40! And it looks pretty easy to do, too!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome Elle! Good luck!
xo
s