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WHY GEZELLIG?

The Dutch have a special word to describe “cosiness”, “comfort”, but it’s also something that goes a little beyond that. “Gezellig”. Pronounced correctly, it kinda sounds like you’re clearing your throat, but this blog explores its meaning by documenting experiences that make life richer and deeper; through food, family, and the making of a home.

DIY Pendant light fixture with single bulbs

by amanda on October 5, 2013

Thought I’d put a few words together about how our kitchen island light fixture came together, since it’s seems to be the showpiece in our new kitchen.

As most things, the idea was borne out of a need to solve a problem. We built the addition 3 years ago and installed the wiring at that time. The drywall went in a year later, and it was only last year that we started our plans for the kitchen. Even before that, my beloved Kijiji came to the rescue when we found what I knew would be our kitchen island. It took us half a day to get since it was on the other side of Toronto, but it was worth the crummy drive without radio or A/C many times over.
kitchen-island

At the time that we wired the ceiling, we only put in one light box. Silly us. Of course, when looking at pendant light fixtures at the time, they all required one light box per pendant. Since then, I’ve noticed more and more options that only require one light box, but that was then and this is now.

So, I started scouring the internet for inspiration. I was big into Pinterest at the time; not as much now; but admittedly it saved the day when I found this. I loved the industrialness of it (is that even a word?), but most of all I loved that I we could have more than one hanging light, all coming from one box, and we didn’t have to decide how far down the lights should hang, how far apart they should be, and even how many we should even have, until the last minute!

One problem: again, this was over a year ago, and there was no such thing as a single bulb hanging on a spare wire for sale. Again, times have changed and now I see them all over the place, but I went back to cyberspace for the parts I would need. A spool of this, a few of these, and BAM! we had our light. Like the microwave stand, the bracket was fashioned out of basic steel electrical conduit and spray-painted a flat black.

,With the island in place, we centred the bracket, and then made our light bulb strands. It was a fun evening—okay, not on the level of a date night—but fun nonetheless figuring out the exact positioning of the overall fixture. Something like $120 later, we had our light!
island-light-fixture
PA106597

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