Hello friends! If you're anything like me, you're getting more and more excited for Christmas as the day approaches and looking forward to some much needed time with family and friends to celebrate the Holiday. I'm currently reading through the book Essentialism and HIGHLY recommend it if you're feeling the overwhelm of "so much to do" and "not enough time."

Now, this is quite bluntly THE time for sales galore, which is awesome and also potentially overwhelming. I understand! Truly!

Currently as I'm wrapping up some personal projects and getting ready to take some time off of work, I thought I'd share things throughout this week that catch my eye amongst the hundreds of options (new arrivals and sale items) that you're sure to appreciate as a Coastal Lover!

Some of these items may be the perfect piece for your home, from a new dining chair, table, blankets, light, or rug OR something may be the perfect gift for a family member or friend like this pretty wood candle tray or these bath salts to encourage your go-getter friend to relax! :-)

Cheers to a new week, and just around the corner a New Year!

xo,

Anneke

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Today's Home Decor Picks

Current sales worth checking out:

Ann Taylor: up to 60% of sale styles

LOFT: 40% off everything including new arrivals

Lord & Taylor: extra 30% off most everything

Nordstrom: up to 60% off Designer

Pottery Barn: free shipping plus 20% off

Last fall I decided to tackle the finishing up of our coastal kitchen makeover after a semi-grueling painting of the cabinets in the summer. That's slightly dramatic, but if you're considering painting your cabinets yourself, yes, you'll definitely want to read through and learn from our experience.

Here is a recap of each week:

Week 1: The Vision and Before Photos

Week 2: Painting the Cabinets

Week 3: Purging, Storage and Organization Solutions in the Kitchen

Week 4: Herringbone Tile

Week 5: Evaluating Progress

Week 6: Kitchen Reveal

Today's post is all about the selection of lighting for our island. This is not a sponsored post, but I am fortunate to have been able to work alongside Lamps Plus who provided the light for our makeover.

Even as someone who LOVES design and decorating, I was running into some challenges (which I share more about in a bit) and the people at Lamps Plus were very kind and helpful in making a decision. Just sayin'! #greatcustomerservice

Here is the island light we ended up with!

So here just some design parameters we were working with when we were trying to find the "perfect" light.

We wanted to have as many bulbs as possible. We went from 4-5.
We wanted the light to be visually light so as not to block our view of the water, but also make a statement. This is super tricky in such a small space!
The ceiling height of only 7.5' combined with the standard bar height on the island made the dimensions we had to work with very limited. We needed something long and skinny, that remained as close to the ceiling as possible. Some island lights were visually perfect, but the way they mounted were not feasible so that's something to consider!
Also, we did not want to rewire anything and stick with the single hole mount that was already there.
Of course, we wanted a light that fit our beach house style, was easy to clean, and blended in nicely with the other textures and finishes. Our entry, living, dining, nook and kitchen are all one space!
I love, love, LOVE how the light we chose has two metal finishes! The main metal portion is a dark bronze and the light socket is an antique bronze that ties in REALLY well with our hardware.

See it up close. It really is the perfect fit!

Here you can see a better view of how the mount fits well with what we already had in place.

The light comes with extension rods, but we just don't have the vertical space for that. Extension rods are a great thing when you have taller ceilings and want a light with a straight clean line versus a cord.

You can see how it would look here installed with the rods. I love knowing that it is an option to add them if we moved or did a major renovation.

So here you can see the progression of lighting.

Before Painting: a simple bronze 4-light

After painting: we switched out the bronze for this simple silver 4-light when the bronze one had led lights that were an absolute PAIN. We were also waiting on our new Roman Shades, which we now LOVE. The shade below is actually a curtain panel I just tacked up for photos. That's blogger TRUTH right there! We currently use these curtains in our home office and master bedroom.

So there you have it!

Thanks again to Lamps Plus for a great experience working with them. I've purchase their lighting over the years and truly love the variety of options they offer! They have some great videos on Facebook to help show you how to bring all design elements together. Video makes all the difference for me, so I really appreciate when brands make things easier and make videos to help us all out.

xo,

Anneke

P.S. If you're new to Coastal Collective Co., I'd like to invite you to take The Make It Happen Challenge! It's a FREE 5-Day Video Series I made to help people meet their goals.

>>>>If that sounds like something you're interested in, click HERE.

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