My interior design hero has to be Candice Olson. Her work is simply stunning, and if you’ve watched every single episode of her show as I have, you’d know one thing.
She loves lighting.
In all of her designs, she focuses a huge amount of time and effort on lighting. She will rip out ceilings, spend half the budget on a chandelier, etc.
Well…I am no Candice Olson and even if I sold a kidney I would not be able to splurge as much as her clients do on lighting. However, you can apply those same principles to any makeover you do. Period.
We have a guest room in our home that gets used maybe 5 times a year. Every time we have guests, all we do is wash the linens and tell them to make themselves at home. It’s about time we showed our guest room a little TLC. Now, unlike many of my makeovers, I didn’t buy a ton of accessories nor paint any walls. I simply focused on the foundation of a good room—lighting.
Daniel and I headed to Walmart with a $2 coupon in hand (which you can print for yourself at the bottom of any page on my blog) to buy bright, white CFL/energy efficient bulbs by GE Lighting. And, I also wanted to splurge on a lighting addition, whether it be a floor lamp or a table lamp.
The room desperately needs better lighting.
See? It’s dark and yellow. You know what I mean by yellow, right? It’s that awful yellow that normal light bulbs cast onto a room.
Not flattering. It also didn’t help that 1/2 the light bulbs were dead in our ceiling fan. I believe they’ve been that way since we moved in back in 2010.
While at Walmart, we chose this pack of CFL bulbs. Why? Well, it said fresh, energizing light, which hopefully will be bright like natural daylight. Basically, not yellow.
They came securely packaged. A+
While I was swapping light bulbs, Daniel put together my new crystal column floor lamp. I’ve been wanting this lamp for years!
And 10 minutes later I had a BRIGHT guest room. What a difference that makes.
Once I adjusted my camera settings, you can better see how the light looks in the room:
It’s white, flattering, bright yet very livable. You don’t feel like it’s too bright. Well, maybe Pee Wee does.
I love how I was able to get accurate color on my pictures without a flash and without any post editing. This is all straight out of the camera.
And if you turn the ceiling fan lights off and just opt for the floor lamp, you still get a bright, natural light that is great for reading or watching TV. Isn’t my new floor lamp pretty?!
And here’s what the bulbs look like in my ceiling fan. Not super chic, but I’ll take the energy savings and white light over the yellow bulbs of doom.
What do you think? Here’s a side-by-side before and after.
I did add in a few accessories I already had on hand (pillows/mirrors), but overall this makeover took 15 minutes and about $65 ($50 floor lamp, $15 bulbs). I hope our guests will appreciate the slight facelift when they visit us again. And maybe I will paint the walls…eventually.
Overall, the main motives for this makeover were to improve the look of the guest room AND to help save money on energy costs. Energy efficient lighting may cost a smidge more upfront, but in the long run it’ll last longer, save you money on your electric bill, and it will make a room look fantastic without needing to spend tons of time and money.
If you click on over to this neat CFL Savings Calculator, you can calculate how much you’d save by switching your bulbs. I calculated my savings and over one year, we’d save about $37 in the guest room. The bulbs were $13 with coupon, so this means in our first year we’d save $24. If we replace all the bulbs in our house, we could potentially save $285. Looks like I need to do more light bulb shopping. That much in savings could equal a new designer handbag every year.
Just sayin’.
If you have more questions on GE Energy Efficient Lighting, feel free to connect with them on their social media channels: Twitter or Facebook.
Do you care about lighting choices in your home? Do you try to pick energy efficient lighting?
I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and GE. All opinions are true and not influenced by monetary compensation or promises of puppies and rainbows. #CBias #SocialFabric #GELighting
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