As noted in past posts, the previous owners of our house had questionable taste. Not only were the original doors mentioned in the last post not in keeping with the original Mid-Century Modern aesthetic, neither were the light fixtures to either side of them. Thus, after the new doors were installed, I did a little online shopping over at Build.com and found some rather inexpensive simple white exterior light fixtures that are much more in keeping with things.
As an added added bonus, I found a smaller version to replace the exterior light outside the sliding glass doors nearest my office.
To get the fixtures installed, I went with a handyman service: Proper Handyman to be exact. The tech they sent out removed the old fixtures easily, installed the new ones and touched up the paint on the stucco.
As long as I was on a roll with finding new light fixtures, I went a bit further and purchased four more lights identical to the two on the garden shed, to replace the very ugly sconces on the exterior walls of the studio building. These were installed at the same time as the other light fixtures, but the nifty trick I employed was putting smart bulbs in two of the fixtures, one outside the fancy new doors and one by our rubbish bins. Now we can turn on those lights easily and there is no longer any fumbling about just inside the door or along the exterior wall trying to find the light switches.
And the old fixtures? Thanks to Freecycle, they went off to a new home!
Perhaps the best part of this wee upgrade is that we no longer have fat ol’ light bombs–you know, those horrible lights you see on the sides of buildings that are super bright but actually do nothing other than create a lot of glare. All the new fixtures are shielded so the light is directed downward. Although in the case of the new porch lights the light is also direct upwards into ceiling overhang outside the front door, but still…no glare or unnecessary light pollution!
