The room we are using for our game room is right inside the front door. It's meant to be a formal living room/dining room. We have no use for that, other than maybe a nice dining table when we have people over. Since the gaming table will transform into a dining table when not in use, it just means we now have a giant dining room! However, the lighting situation was pretty bad when we moved in. The sunlight from the windows is great but, at night, these lights don't do much for the room.
When I found dragon sconce lights, I knew we would love them in this space. They don't give off much light but they're really cool looking. When they arrived, I found that their cords are so short they couldn't even be installed at 5 feet up the wall. It's unfortunate, but they're worth the hassle. Right now, they're plugged in with extension cords and it looks terrible. Eventually, I will come up with a system to hide it all away. They look excellent in the bay window. I will likely paint the walls a dark color to make them really stand out. I haven't decided on the color yet.
The overhead light situation was an issue because of the placement of the table. It was way off center once we started building the table.
I thought about moving the junction box but what if the next owners would like a smaller table, more centered near the bay window? Also, that's more work than I really wanted to put in. Thankfully, there are tons of options for lights you can swag on a chain so I went in search for one. I looked for anything rectangular and as large as I could find. It took a while but I found the perfect light for the room. It is not something I would ever have considered had it not been for this particular room. Even finalizing the purchase was tough because I kept second-guessing my choice. Once it arrived, I just went with it.
When I took down the old light fixture (after turning off the circuit), I discovered why it wasn't hanging flush with the ceiling. It was just missing a screw on one side. I'm glad it was only that because I've taken lights down before to find that the junction box is installed crooked or protruding from the ceiling and that's more of a headache to fix. A missing screw is no problem.
Out with the old, in with the new, with a new screw.
I really like when light fixtures include the center piece to thread the wires through because it makes it a lot easier to connect everything. However, I have never installed a light correctly the first time around so wiring it, undoing it and wiring it again is frustrating even when the fixture has a handy piece to thread the wires through. This light proved to be the same as every other light I've installed. I had to install it twice. There were no instructions and this type of light is new to me so I didn't notice all of the things I was supposed to thread through the wire BEFORE threading the wire through here and connecting everything. More on that in a bit. For now, here's the light installed and working!
Once I climbed back up there to attach the rest of the fixture I realized my mistake. Before wiring it to the junction box, there were two poles and a canopy that had to have the wire threaded through them.
It wasn't until I attempted to hang the canopy that I realized what was wrong. So, I had to pull the whole thing back down and start over.
Once everything was in place, the last pieces could go up. Like I said before, this is not something I was super excited about putting up. I didn't much like it. However, once I finished getting it all situated, I kinda fell in love. It's just as perfect for the room as the dragon sconces.
I realize, in this next picture, it's hanging crooked. I did climb back up and fix that issue.
It's incredible how much light this gives off. When searching for a light for this room, I made sure whatever we were buying would be dimmable since we don't always need it very bright. So, next it was time to install a dimmer switch.
I'm less familiar with light switches than with light fixtures and outlets so I did have to do a quick search on the internet but I'm glad I did because it was helpful in understanding how the wires function.
Once it was installed, I learned a bit more. Plain LED lightbulbs don't work on a dimmer switch. It created a crazy strobing affect when I turned the dimmer all the way up to full strength. At first, I thought something was wrong with my installation so I pulled it back out and rewired it being extra careful to make sure all connections were perfect. Eventually, I read through the instructions and found that I needed either non-LED bulbs or dimmable LED bulbs. Once I replaced them, everything worked great!
In the midst of the lighting chaos, the new stools were delivered so I started putting those together too. They are adjustable so we can use them when the table is lower for gaming and higher for dining.
The room is really coming along. One day, I hope to finish everything. In the meantime, I will continue to share the little accomplishments along the way. Next up, dice trays! Now where's my jigsaw?
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