There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

We have signed the lease and received the keys! So we immediately went back over to the new place. And there was a bit of "oh, yeah, that's not so great. Oh, I forgot about that..." Luckily I immediately countered my Eeyore mentality with "so many awesome projects!"

I think the best "Oh dear, what have we done?" was after the discovery of two Exit signs on the main floor. I can only guess the building was once used for some kind of commerce or office space. Tricky but I've already got some ideas swirling around my brain. One of the best things about being the child of an artist and a programmer is that I can visualize all kinds of strange ideas. I occasionally can explain them well to the poor husband but I suspect that I sound like a lunatic most of the time. 

But the foremost "Oh this has got to go" is the super 80s chandelier dangling from the middle of my dining room. If we owned the place I would yank it but such is the life of a renter.

This house is so fire-safe it's not funny. Two exit signs and posted fire extinguishers in each floor.
I like the latter.

Yeah, that's right it has two layers of glass elongated octagon drops — in two sizes!There is an awkward sunburst pattern on each drop. Some part of me wants to incorporate some amazing 80s room but that would involve a whole lot of pastels and I don't even like pink!

My first idea was to get a spherical paper lantern to go around it. That way it would continue to shed light and hide all of the glass action. But that would hide — it's only redeeming feature —  the cool pattern that hits the ceiling. So, back to the drawing board. 

The drawing board that is various strangers' Pinterest boards, at least. There are so many cool ideas out there! What I'm leaning toward the most is a variation of two DIY projects:

Burlap & Plexiglass Pendant
This comes from The Keylor Family

Chicken Wire & Fabric Pendant
This is from Neal

The Keylor Pendant is lovely and clean. I will use their plexiglass and hoops to my advantage. The Neal pendant has that awesome fabric element that I like. Also, Neal's is open at the top so it allows more light and I can still get my pattern on the ceiling. (When I'm feeling really optimistic it reminds me of looking up through a tree canopy).

Photo courtesy of the Maryland DNR