Antique Ladder and Pendant Lights

Yesterday I posted my IKEA pendant makeover…but today, you get to see the WHOLE thing, antique ladder and all! I mentioned when we were having hardwoods installed, we took down the ceiling fan in our kitchen. I’m talking like, one week before the hardwood guys were supposed to arrive, I realized that we needed to re-texture and paint the ceiling. And while we were at it, we might as well take down that old fan because we knew we wanted to replace it with something eventually.

Ugh. This is how home renovation goes, guys…one project creates another, and another….it’s just a spiral. Oh, and it’s also never finished (but secretly I love that).

Anyway, long story short, this project was a long time coming. We seriously lived without light in half of our kitchen for several months because I couldn’t figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I searched and searched, and finally decided on the IKEA Ottava pendant because of it’s farmhouse-feel. They come in a stainless steel color which I liked, but of course, I couldn’t leave it as-is. I never make things easy for myself. ;) Check out the “IKEA Ottava Pendant Makeover” [here]!

And now for the story on the ladder…

While antique shopping a few weekends ago, we came across this really pretty crib mattress hanging from the ceiling – it was draped in twinkle lights and pretty greenery. It looked like something out of a fairytale…I could not stop thinking about it and wanted to do something similar in our house. After considering it for a while, I realized that hanging it over our kitchen island would be perfect – it was exactly what space was missing!

I wanted it to be a little different, so we went with an antique ladder instead of a crib mattress. YOU GUYS. I love so much how this project turned out! We still have a little touch up to do – you’ll probably notice the track hiding the cords on the ceiling needs to be patched, painted, etc. and I think I may want to do a little bit of touch up paint on the pendant lights, but I’m in looooove! Do you hear angels singing or is that just me?

Oh and we are also thinking about possibly putting a dimmer switch on these lights…they’re so bright! But it was probably just a shock to finally turn them on after several months of living in half-dark! From initially thinking how about some fancy ceiling lights? when we were considering making a little change to the kitchen, to actually seeing them hanging up on the ceiling is pretty cool! They add something different to the room, which was what we wanted.

I took some photos with the lights on, and it was a little difficult to get good quality pictures. We have a weird awning over our kitchen window –  I think the awning effects the natural lighting, so pictures are hard sometimes. Perhaps we’ll take that awning down sometime..do you see what I mean about the project spiral?? :)

What do you think? It’s quite an improvement from the 1970’s ceiling fan huh?! Now the question becomes…where the heck do I find barstools? I can’t seem to find what I’m looking for!

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