Ikea lamp shade $18.
We have been in our house for a little over five years now. We bought it from the original builder/owner who kept it in pristine shape. 1976 shape. Harvest gold linoleum, dark brown appliances, wallpaper on every wallpaperable surface.
We have done a lot of updating over the past five years. We gutted and redid all of the bathrooms, redid all the flooring. We swapped out all the interior doors and put up crown moulding and new baseboards. Fresh paint every where. We just are in the finishing stages of our new kitchen. One thing we just could not agree on was a new light fixture for the entry way. The original fixture was almost charming in it’s ugliness – it was a wood and smoked glass monstrousity. I spied the above crystal lamp shade at Ikea and decided my handy husband could rig up a temporary fixture for us that would certainly be more attractive than what was there.
Of course temporary, at our house, can sometimes mean ‘until it falls apart or we move, which ever comes first.’
And lest you think I’m kidding about the harvest gold here’s a before and after of our kitchen. Please note that the before was taken before we moved in so all decorating is courtesy of the previous owner (I feel compelled to point that out).
I understand completely. We have an 1896 gable-and-wing Victorian that was “updated” in 1976. Yup, wallpaper everywhere. We stripped and stripped and replastered and painted. It took almost five months. The kitchen was the least offensive (LOL). Divided into two parts, one was peach and the other was a sort of citrine or lime-y yellow. Needless to say, those colors were quickly covered with ivory.
I like the slightly worn cabinets and I can live with the countertops for a while yet. But the sink was bright orange! It’s now stainless steel.
Really, decor-wise the 70s were awful. Fashion was pretty ugly, too.
Anyway, love the new kitchen.