Kitchen update #1: Lighting

On one of our trips to Ikea, K wondered why all their kitchen showrooms looked so nice. Well, besides not ever having been used to actually prepare food, she realized it was because of the lighting. All of them had some version of track lighting:

The focused overhead almost task-like lighting was bright and directed. But we didn't like any of the lights Ikea had for options. On a trip to Lowes one day, we found one we did. So we bought one and I quickly swapped it out with the super-weird chandelier thing that was providing the only overhead lighting in our kitchen.

Quickly, our kitchen went from this:

To this:

Instantly, we were sold. Even with just a single fixture, the lighting was so much crisper and brighter. But that was just a test, of course. Then we had to tear apart our ceiling to install them for real.

The job was super-simple. We planned out where we wanted each fixture (3 around the kitchen plus 1 above the to-be island) and I figured out how I'd need to route the cables in the least intrusive way. It still meant cutting a bunch of holes in our ceiling wide enough to get a power drill up and into so I could then drill holes through the joists.

I'd pull power from the light that was above the kitchen sink on its own switch to over the island, while then running cables in series from the old chandelier installation to the three new fixtures all on a 3-way switch.

So the ceiling went from this (the holes for the chandelier and light over the sink):

To this:

Installing the lighting was easy.

Then breaking out my mudding tools to repair all the holes. When it was all said and done, S saw this picture on my phone of H and remarked how bright it looked. So I guess it captures best how well the new fixtures light up our kitchen significantly better than the previous one.

It really is a vast improvement. My favorite: the light over the island.