New Entry Light Fixture, Flooring Option, and Half Bathroom Wall Inspiration

Progress on the studio was slow but steady over the weekend. After much frustration, I finally got the walls painted. At least, I think they’re finished. Once the new light actually has power and the entryway has light, I might discover yet more areas that need touchup. But for now, I’m calling it done.

But speaking of light fixtures, I made my decision on the light for the back entry. I went with immediate gratification and bought this light fixture from Lowe’s. And oh my gosh, I’m so glad I did, because it’s PERFECT!

I didn’t think I would like the black metal on it, but I actually do. And make no mistake. Even though the product description calls it bronze, that thing is black. Solid black. And it’s perfect.

Y’all, this fixture was a bear to put together and install. I’ve never in my life bought a light fixture that required so much assembly. It’s a 13-light fixture, and all but about four of those arms had to be screwed into the base. Then my brother had to come help me install it because it’s too heavy and way too bulky for one person to hold and install while standing on a 10-foot ladder. Then once that was done, it took forever to screw in all of those 13 light bulbs and get all 13 of the globes installed. I was so paranoid that I was going to drop one of those globes on my way up the ladder! But I made it through all 13 without incident.

And I’m so glad, because I absolutely love it!

Actually, immediate gratification wasn’t even the main reason I went with this one. The deciding factor for me was actually that this fixture has glass globes that will more evenly disperse light into the now-dark entryway. The other light that I thought was my favorite had a metal drum shade, which obviously wouldn’t have let light through the sides.

So the immediate gratification and the saving of $140 were just added bonuses. 🙂

And I love how it shows from the studio…

So in addition to finishing the walls, painting the doors (I still need to scrape the overspray off of glass, obviously), and assembling and installing the light fixture, I also spent about an hour or two looking at countless images of black and white floors to see if I could find any inspiration at all for the entryway floor. I wanted something beyond a black and white checkerboard design.

I found several complicated designs that were pretty amazing, but if you’ll remember, I’ll be using groutable peel-and-stick vinyl tile (LVT, or luxury vinyl tile) for the entire studio area. So unless I could find someone to laser cut all of my tiles (which would be amazing, but expensive, I’m sure), then I needed a simple design.

Of the simple designs I liked, I think this one is my favorite…

Photo by Meghan Carter Design Inc. – Search entryway design ideas

I always love a herringbone pattern, but using two different widths of tile — a wider white tile and a narrower black or charcoal tile — just seems to take it up a notch. So as of right now, this is the direction I plan to head for the flooring in the back entryway.

And finally, I also got inspiration for the bathroom walls, and I wasn’t even looking for it. I knew that I wanted something colorful and geometric or linear, but I didn’t know exactly what that would be. Then as I was clicking around on Instagram and looking at the “suggested” accounts that Instagram thought I might be interested in, I came across this image.

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A post shared by Lisa Faulkner (@lisafaulknercooks) on Dec 18, 2018 at 11:33am PST

The design on that tin stopped me in my tracks. Y’all, inspiration can come from anywhere! And as soon as I saw that, I thought, “That’s what I want my bathroom walls to look like!”

It’s colorful, which I obviously love. It’s geometric, which I think would be a good counterbalance to the big floral wall in the studio.

But I have no idea if I could actually pull that off. That would be so much taping, unless I just freehand it and go for a more relaxed, less perfect outcome.

I tried to find wallpapers that looked like that, and while I did find a few that came close, none of them were as pretty to me as the design on that tin.

So I’m still giving it some thought. We’ll see if I actually have it in me to tackle such a design. But now that I’ve found something that I absolutely love, it’ll be hard to settle for something else. But as I learned with my light fixture, sometimes the second best option turns out to be the best!

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