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Jun and I are in the home stretch of completing our hallway bathroom DIY renovation! We finished replacing our shower as well as tile flooring last month, but I’ve been so eager to finally make some good headway on our vanity area. Unfortunately, with all of the changes we’ve had to make to work around the COVID-19 pandemic, it took us some time to safely acquire all of the materials we needed to update all of the electrical in this bathroom.
Our home was built in the 90’s and as we tore through the walls, we discovered so many issues with the electrical wiring and basically needed to rewire half of our entire home to ensure all of the electrical was evenly distributed across the grid. This entire bathroom was wired to the same outlet as my office in the next room as well as our guest bedroom, so we were continuously shorting the power.
Needless to say, we finally got the electrical situation all sorted out and finally had the opportunity to remove the vintage-style overhead lightbox and replace them with some beautiful lights from Lights.com. Let’s take a look at the bathroom vanity to remind you exactly what we were dealing with before:
And here’s what it looks like currently:
It doesn’t even feel like the same bathroom anymore whatsoever!
You may notice some missing sink faucets: the sinks actually aren’t installed yet. We will be salvaging the existing countertops by refinishing them before we install the vessel sinks and faucets, but just to help you envision what the finished product will look like, they’ve been placed on the counters for the photo.
Searching For the Perfect Gold Fixtures
Of course, our main goal has always been to give this bathroom a modern makeover at a minimal cost. Choosing gold accents was what truly made vanity feel a lot more upscale, despite the fixtures being extremely affordable. I purchased the gold-framed mirrors on sale back in January, so I wanted some light fixtures that complimented them and shared the same art deco style. Lights.com offered the perfect match: their Prospect collection. All of their gold-tone fixtures in this minimal yet modern collection feature a beautiful aged brass finish, which makes them look really upscale and luxe. But the prices are much more affordable than the prices I’ve seen at most home improvement stores!
Our Prospect pendant light was only $139 and the matching wall sconce was $59, which met our lighting budget of just under $250. Finishing them off with these beautiful globe-shaped frosted LED bulbs gave us the perfect chic look.
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It’s a common thought that you need an extravagant glass chandelier or big and bold light fixtures to elevate the feel of a room, but you don’t have to be flashy in order to make a luxurious statement. I intentionally chose minimal light fixtures to ensure that all the gold fixtures harmonized with each other. None of them are fighting for your eye’s attention, but are all still individually beautiful in their own subtle way.
I’m also actually beyond impressed by the quality of the lights, especially considering the inexpensive price tags they come with. They truly are quality fixtures, and an added bonus was how easy they were to install. I must admit that installing the lights was the easiest part of this process – the most time-consuming part was actually replacing and retexturing the drywall where the lightbox used to be.
Planning the Lighting Situation in the Bathroom
If you’re planning on updating the light fixtures in your bathroom, I highly recommend giving strategic thought towards how your light fixtures will interact with each other. Our bathroom only has one small window in the bathroom, so while natural light is available throughout most of the day, I wanted the ambient lighting to be evenly distributed in the evening.
I didn’t want too many light fixtures in the bathroom because I didn’t want to create too many focal points. The Prospect pendant light was the perfect solution because it features two bulbs that throw light on both the light and right sinks, which spreads more light across the bathroom. While the fixture itself is smaller than most average large overhead bathroom lights, it still offers just as much as the previous lights did, if not more.
Let’s also remember that I chose black paint for the walls, which has a tendency to absorb light, but the lighting in this bathroom is sufficient to light up the entire room. Exposed light bulbs were key: if I chose a fixture that had a cover over the bulbs, I wouldn’t have been able to use the white glossy ceiling as a reflector to bounce light around the rest of the room. And choosing white floors, cabinets, counters and the rest of the fixtures really helps balance out the light absorption of the black walls. These choices were all intentional, and I encourage you to think about how your paint choices and fixture colors will interact with the lighting in your bathroom. Light bounces off shiny objects, so when in doubt, pick white fixtures that can serve as light reflectors.
Pairing the pendant light with the matching wall sconce also serves as a “fill light” to prevent harsh shadows under the eyes while you do your beauty regimen in the vanity mirrors. Ideally, I would recommend having two – one on the left side of the left mirror and the other on the right side of the right mirror – but unfortunately, the existing sinks were spread out so far apart that we wouldn’t have enough space to put a wall sconce on the left side. So we did the best with our existing layout and decided to put a single sconce in the middle of the two sinks. Even though this wasn’t originally what we wanted, it wound up working out for the best: both lights are wired to the same light switch, and we didn’t want to overload that outlet.
I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is to plan your lighting! You can have a beautiful bathroom, but neglecting to pick the right bulb color temperature or planning your light fixture placements can really dampen the overall vibe of the room. Luckily, Lights.com has a wide range of light fixtures that are both stylish, high-quality, and affordable solutions for every room, both indoors and out. I’ve linked a few of my favorites below, so check them out and get a few for yourself! They offer free shipping on orders over $49, and don’t forget to use code “BALLER20” at checkout for 20% off your order until May 1st, 2020.
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We’re so close to completing this bathroom and I’m excited to share what’s next! We’re currently working on creating a tub skirt for the tub and will start on refinishing the counters and installing the new faucets this week. As for the existing medicine cabinet, we’re likely going to replace it with an open product shelf using the black tile from our bathtub and some gold brushed metal or glass for the shelves. I’m pretty excited to see how that will turn out!
What’s your favorite part of our bathroom renovation so far? Let me know in the comments and be sure to follow along on Instagram for more renovation updates and DIY tutorials on my stories. And if you liked this post, subscribe to my newsletter below to be the first to know when I publish a new blog post!
More Home Blog Posts:
- Guest Bedroom Update: $1,000 Makeover
- We Bought a Home! + Everything You Need to Know Before Buying a Home (As Told By a Real Estate Agent)
- Hallway Bathroom Update: DIY Faux Marble Counters with Giani Paint
- Hallway Bathroom Update: Updated Vanity and Lights Featuring Lights.com
- How to Paint Walls: Money-Saving Tips to Do It Yourself
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