Living Room Lighting Revamped. Oh Yeah.

I found some old pictures on my harddrive from when we first moved in. 

I really hate that fan. It cast such a harsh yellow light. Anyways, with the addition of our new flokati rug, the ikea 365+ track system and Rob's handmade pendant....

I LOVE the new rug. The cats love it too -- not in a litter box kinda way (yay) but in a "this rug makes me feel like I'm hunting in the serengeti" kinda way. They play together on it. Or nap. It's so soft and squishy on my toes too. :) It definitely warmed up the room. Leather can be cold so I think they balance each other out. Oh and Rob removed the coffee table. He's always hated it and it was looking cluttered in there anyways. 

If you're wondering what that box in the lower corner is, it's flooring. We have the flooring for the living room stockpiled next to the TV. It's heavy and Rob keeps whining when I ask him to move it! 

Lightingwise-- We had to do the track on a diagonal to get the pendant over the table. An L shape wouldn't have worked with the track lengths.

I'm going to do a tutorial on Friday for that pendant. It cost us $9 to build! It looks a bit little in these pictures but in real life it's a good size. Anything bigger would have competed too much with everything else going on in the room.

 Behind the table is our free poop dresser. Again, it's heavy and I can't move it myself... or with Rob. It's going to take three people. So, excuse the dresser and the pile of flooring while you look at these next photos! ;)

Bringing it back to the whole point of this post, the track lighting was a good compromise for Rob and I. I definitely did not want another track light in the house. I wanted a pendant light to be swagged over the table and some wall lights over the couch instead. However, this lights the room SO well. The halogen lights are crisp and wonderful, and I still get my pendant. Yay for happiness all around. Plus, the track light is fairly subtle. It's not in the pictures, but in real life you just don't notice them up there.

 (Dang, forgot those mirrors were still there on the wall, ignore those too)

Okay, so in all, the lighting system was not cheap. The track parts, track, spot lights and connectors totaled over $160. Luckily, the pendant only cost $9. Unluckily, we found out after we installed it that Home Depot sells a similar system for half the cost :( But, the Ikea one is a bit more unique... and Rob didn't want to uninstall it and drive 2 hours away to return it. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I'm just glad the ugly fan is gone! 

Now that I look at this I realize there are a few changes I'm going to make pronto. First, I'm going to take out the side table with the palm tree on it. The palm is an outdoor plant anyways, I'm just waiting for warmer weather. It can go lurk in another room. It's just too cluttered in that corner. It needs breathing space! 
Secondly, 

The shelf behind the table looks crazy busy so it's going as well. I can't seem to like it anywhere in the house... it might be time to let it go. And I know that basket on the table is weird too. It used to be on the coffee table but that got moved so it landed there temporarily. 

It's funny how pictures show what needs to be changed. 
Regardless, how do you like the new bought and homemade lighting?