Hanging a Steal of a Chandelier

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Did you ever have that middle school phase when you were the most awkward kid on the planet? And somehow in those 3-4 years, you suddenly had an identity crisis and lost all ability to know how to dress, had to get glasses and braces all at once, and every day was a bad hair day?

That’s how Olivia’s bedroom makeover has had me feeling lately. It’s that in-between halfway there phase that you just know will completely blossom into this cute little space, but right now it almost feels like the kid who wears the same sweatshirt to school every single day. (11 year-old former self Lauren, I’m talkin’ to you.)

Here’s how Olivia’s room looked a couple months ago:

Since we’ve painted, added wall decor, and really figured out the style we’re going for in here, that Ikea Maskros light fixture was looking really out of place. But since I’m a tightwad, er, I mean a frugal decorista, I resorted to the fact that the perfect chandelier just wasn’t going to happen.

Until this lucky find came along…

I found the cutest chandelier for 50% off at Lowe’s with the right colors and for the right size for the room’s 8′ ceilings and just went for it. The general rule to determine the size of chandelier a room should have is by adding the length and width of the room in feet and converting it to inches for the width of your chandelier.

Olivia’s room is 10′ x 8′, so at a 17″ width, the chandelier worked.

And I proceeded to sing “Chandelier” over and over, very loudly and extremely off-key, occassionally with a pirouette or two. My child thinks I’m nuts. My husband already knows this. And our dog just hides when I start spinning around the house.

Poor Robert had to once again pull down that darn Ikea light to make way for the fancy chandelier, which he admitted he was glad to see we were doing instead.

I’m glad he knows his way around electrical work because I’d be sitting there like “The fluxernator goes into the gillikabob and twists into the zonkithing.” The only thing I know- turn the power off. That’s my job. From there, I’m a lost cause and it’s all him. I hold the light fixture and hand off tools.

We wanted to make sure the chandelier didn’t come down too low. Since it hangs right at the foot of Olivia’s bed, it wasn’t going to be too cumbersome to have it hanging just above our heads.

Once the chandelier was up and running, we had all of these little guys to contend with.

Robert used his pliers to place the glass “crystals” one-by-one all over the chandelier.

That is some major true love right there.

Olivia’s exact words when it was all finished were, “Ooooooh! Pretty, Daddy!”

It looks perfect with her ballet barre wall.

I’m so ready to jazz up the wall behind her bed. That’s coming up soon on our to-do list. See what I mean? It’s that in-between phase.

Can you believe this thing was $70? It’s even more beautiful in person. And since we can most likely sell the Ikea light from before, that knocks off a few bucks.

It looks so cute with her birdcage lamp too.

Olivia, Robert, and I danced around the room together when it was all finished…because that’s pretty much what we always do when we finish a project without any hitches.

So maybe this room is now nearing the end of the awkward phase. And it will end up looking like Molly Ringwald, without the 80s hair.

We have a couple more projects getting wrapped up, so stay tuned for those coming up.

Update:  See the full bedroom makeover reveal here!

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