French-Inspired Lighting

There were about 123,456,789 things

I fell in LOVE with

when I traveled to France with my hubby.

-Pinterest via travelust.org

J'adore the beautiful window boxes full of flowers.

-Pinterest via alqimikosi.tumblr.com

I also fell head over heels for the shutters

and the outdoor light fixtures.

-Pinterest via myinnerlandscape.tumblr.com

We've been in our Santa Barbara cottage

for two years now.
Slowly, but surely, I am trying to add
some of the flair I fell in love with while in France.

-Pinterest via Anne Tuuainen

Our home was built in 1971,

and although there were
some upgrades made by the previous owners,
a lot of the home was original.

This included the outdoor light fixtures.
See this "gem" (ha ha)?
 

This was the light fixture for our back porch.

It flanked our sliding glass door to the backyard.

Rusty. Crusty. Gross.

And, the yellow bubble glass did not help.

Also, it was tiny.

It was about 7" x 4" - completely the

wrong scale for the wall it was on.

Guess what!

It had a TWIN! UGH.

The matching light was outside

next to the sliding door leading to the side patio.

And now...
Here is what I replaced it with.
So much better...
and it has that French flair that I am obsessed with.

Here is its twin (by the other door).

Not only do they LOOK better,
they also cast better light.

The other original outdoor light fixture
was this "lovely" thing (read with dripping sarcasm).

Oh boy.
Well, I thought I would be all "DIY"
and I would try to refurbish this thing.
My dad has his electrician's license,
so he was able to get it down for me.

I thought I could replace the glass
and spray paint the chain and other metal parts.

No.
This thing was in terrible shape.
It was cracked, moldy, and poorly wired.

Maybe I could have saved it,
but it was less expensive to find a new fixture
with a similar style as my other new fixtures.

 

I found this gem at lightingdirect.com
(not a sponsored post)
It was under $100 and it shipped quickly.

My dad brought all of his tools.
(Toodles, our pug, decided to photo bomb.)

It's REALLY high up there,
so my dad did quite the acrobatic act.
He's 71, but he didn't blink an eye.
He never ceases to amaze me.

Here it is - and I love it!

And here is my dad (with Toodles)
after the job was done.
What a great dad!

We tried it out and everything worked perfectly.

Here is what the new fixture looks like at night.
We have a very narrow outdoor entry,
so I like the size and scale of this new light.

The outside is complete (at least for awhile).
 Now, it is time to start giving some
TLC to the light fixtures inside my home.

Au Revoir,
Michelle  

Come see this post and other inspiration at:

http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=3693675763&group=0&frame_type=a&context=undefined&context_ids=undefined&blog=1809101&frame=1&click=0&user=0




Also, join the great linky party at
Wow Us Wednesday #194

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/2014/11/wow-us-wednesdays-194.html  



You can also find a ton of ideas at
Tweak it Tuesday #114

http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/2014/11/tweak-it-tuesday-114.html 




Then, there is the fab 4 link up at Work it Wednesday

http://thehappyhousie.com/work-wednesday-features-7/



In addition, Marty always has great inspiration at
Inspire Me Tuesday #241

http://www.bloglovin.com/frame?post=3693471059&group=0&frame_type=a&context=undefined&context_ids=undefined&blog=4979817&frame=1&click=0&user=0