Glittering diamonds

Today I was dazzled by our new living-room light fixture. I'd only seen it online, named unremarkably the Kichler Classic 69048. The little diamond detail fit perfectly with the diamond trim theme we already had (in the corners of the top bar of door trim), and I was in the mood for something a little more colorful. I'm generally not a Tiffany-light sort of person, but this was pretty understated.

It's rare that something exceeds my expectations, but this fixture is beautiful. And it works perfectly in there!

(Bill, the energetic electrician -- no pun intended -- takes great pride in his precise, detailed work.) Previously this room had one switched outlet, and a scattered outlet or two in which we could plug in lamps. It is so time for centralized, adequate light.

Speaking of the living room and diamond-trim details, I visited the woodworking shop that's making our new fireplace mantle today. Here it is, in the works!

With, of course, a diamond detail.

(OK, not a diamond, but rather, a 45-degree offset square.)

The diamond theme started with the dining room's original window, which has offset squares on the top piece of trim. As far as we can tell, that's original to the house.

When we put the dining room chandelier in, we bought wall sconces with the intent of adding them to that room, but it took until this project to finally do so -- and a good thing too, because it wasn't easy to wire them in. This original room has no outlets, and only the one center pendant. Now, the sconces on either side of the window not only add some ambient light, but they look fabulous.

It helps a lot that they cast light onto a colored wall, instead of the previous harsh white we had everywhere. I'm loving our almost total loss of white walls (minus insides of closets that is).

But will we actually sit in this room now that we have the catch-all kitchen/dining/family room area? Before, it was the only place we had to sit to eat, but now, I'm not sure what to make of it. How many rooms have an exterior door with an operable casement sidelight (you can crank the sidelight open), a 4-foot pocket door, and a swinging door? It's very strange. Then again, strange is our hallmark. I was very pleased when the mantle guy commented at all the niches and pocket doors and hidden closets in the house -- like me, he makes use of every little space available. That may have cost us in numerous ways (money, time, confusion, no wall space), but the cool factor is pretty high.

Finally, something I don't have to get over. I love this light.