Swapping out lamps

I know I’m not alone when I admit that I re arrange my house…A LOT!  One thing I especially love to switch out is lamps.  They’re easy to lift+carry and can change the overall look and feel of a room.

We have accumulated a bunch of lamps within the past year because our brand new house lacks ceiling lights!   I can count on one hand the number of rooms that have a ceiling light…dining room and kitchen eating nook (aka kids’ playroom).  That’s it. So I am always on the hunt for inexpensive, funky lamps. It’s cheaper than hiring an electrician to install j-boxes!

That being said, I swapped out my two matching eBay brass table lamps from the dining room…

to the family room…

I “styled” (aka, threw a bunch of crap together and hope it looks good) the end table I made with some colorful cookbooks and wire basket to hold my favorite magazines.  I also clipped a sapling from the magnolia tree in our front yard and just love the waxy look of the leaves.

Half way through my picture-taking I had to stop and snap this.  I wonder what each is thinking.  Maybe, “Is she ever going to stop?”

So the lamp that used to be on this table was this one I ordered from West Elm.

I love the way this looks, but I was only able to afford one lamp so the end table on the other side of the room was without one.  It looked pretty unbalanced.  So swapping out the dining room lamps for this one made perfect sense.

And here is what it looks like now in the dining room…

Swapping out one lamp completely changed the feel of the room.  It went from a bit formal to casual and relaxed.  That’s what I love most about shopping the house…it’s free and (almost) always ends with a happy result.