Remember when we showed how shiny and polished the kitchen looked after we finished grouting?
And then we revealed the chaos that showed up shortly after?
The room is back together now, and we made a lot of changes to the lighting.
Yes, the ceiling looks like Swiss cheese, but it’s all for a good cause — we’re moving toward a much brighter, more welcoming kitchen.
Lighting really does make the room. Even with new white counters and freshly painted cabinets, the space still felt dark and lacking in functional light. The peninsula was especially shadowed and the area around the sink had a harsh, yellowish glow that made it uncomfortable to work there. And that ceiling fan that hadn’t been used in over a year had to go — it sounded like a low-flying helicopter over dinner prep. So down came the fixtures, and yes, they left holes.
Here’s a simple money-saving tip: do as much prep work for the electricians as you can, since they bill by the hour. We always remove old fixtures (after turning off the power, of course). Even marking the ceiling placements ahead of time saves them watching you decide where things should go while the clock is running.
To determine pendant placement over the peninsula, John stood on a stool holding glass jar lids to simulate the fixtures and we adjusted until we liked the spacing. We didn’t need to finalize heights yet since we’ll hang the pendants ourselves later — for now we just marked the locations with small Xs of painter’s tape.
Then I climbed onto the dining table to mark a center spot there.
We didn’t want to hire the electricians back just to add lighting in nearby rooms, so while they were here we also planned improvements for our dining room and other spaces that currently lack overhead lighting. The dining room, in particular, is used at night and could benefit from a central fixture — we envision a large chandelier someday.
From a previous conversation, the electricians recommended four recessed can lights for the cooking side of the kitchen, so we marked those locations with Xs of painter’s tape just outside the existing fluorescents on either side.
We also asked them to add an outlet on the counter to the right of the fridge — handy for mixers and other small appliances — since the peninsula already has an outlet for laptops.
Here are the four recessed cans they installed to replace the two fluorescents that used to flank the fan, which was removed and disconnected.
We hired a well-reviewed local electrical team with experience working as a two-person crew, which helped them complete the job efficiently. In about five hours they accomplished:
- Installing four recessed lights
- Terminating the two old fluorescent fixture boxes
- Terminating the fan fixture box
- Adding an above-counter outlet next to the fridge
- Adding two fixture boxes over the peninsula for future pendants
- Terminating a poorly placed previous pendant box
- Adding a fixture box and switch above the dining table
- Centering a fixture box above the sink
Note: Some photos show the gap where crown molding will eventually meet the tile or paneling — that trim is still on our to-do list.
The two-person team billed around $75 per hour, so the labor for five hours totaled about $375, plus roughly $80 for materials. For that investment we gained four recessed lights, two pendant locations over the peninsula, a centered light over the sink, a new outlet, and a fixture and switch in the dining room — along with the safe disconnection of fixtures we no longer needed. Big impact for a reasonable price.
I like sharing price details because electrical work often sounds more expensive than it needs to be. Simple steps like marking placements in advance, removing old fixtures, and hiring a two-person crew can speed the job and reduce costs. A single-story ranch layout also made it easy for them to run wiring in the attic; multi-story homes can sometimes require more effort to access wiring paths.
Since the last time they were here, things have come a long way in the kitchen…
Now we just need to pick pendants and patch the holes. We’ll share details as we go — update: we found pendants and have hood information to share soon.
What did you do this weekend? We received a giant FedEx box Saturday with our final manuscript — all 375 pages of it. Seeing that stack of pages was surreal and really special.
Psst — One more happy note: one of the finalists in the Ikea Life Improvement Project, a reader named Melissa Matthews, won. Melissa, the mother of a child with Down syndrome, plans to expand work at the Frankie Lemmon School in Raleigh, NC, using new resources and technology to support children with intellectual disabilities. She’ll also create a website to share her methods with other teachers. We’re so thrilled for her and proud to share the news.