Our current lighting isn’t great. I’ll admit that. But despite our ceilings being fairly high, our living room always seemed heavy and dark. A few gems left from the previous owners play a major role in this.

The walls are a pale yellow that seems charming at first, but certainly doesn’t grow on you. In a showing of home town pride, they paired the yellow with black above our stone fireplace. They did not, unfortunately, leave behind the smiley face clock that pulled the whole room together. The transom above the one large window in the room has been covered in the plywood — from the inside — and painted to match the walls. The hardware for the heavy floral curtains was covered by a scalloped wooden panel that I threw in the trash the day we moved in. In retrospect I regret not getting a few pictures.

Luckily, the drilled through the window frame so that we can have this handy, and very safe, outdoor outlet.