Our new house is lovely, but it definitely has some issues (the most glaring of which is the horrendous red carpet throughout the house!) and one of details that bothered me most was the cheesy, cheap looking chandelier in the dining room. 

The pic is not great, so it's hard to tell but the chandelier was really corny.  Particularly since we have mostly wrought iron type accents in our home. 

I painted the insides of the (umm...squares?  I don't know the technical term) a color called centennial blue because our living room/dining room/kitchen colors are greens and blues.  I am actually thinking I need to change it because I don't feel like it goes as well as I would like.  I was trying to pick up on the blue in the countertops, but I'm not sure I love it. 

Last night we hit up Home Depot and picked up a new chandelier (and a ceiling fan for our bedroom...we currently have NO light fixture in there because the previous owners tore it out).  I had initially this lovely chandelier:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100521587&N=10000003+90401+500192

After looking at it in person, though, it seemed pretty overwhelming for the space we wanted it in, and we weren't in love with the candle-like bulbs. 

I found something else I liked for far less and after much agonizing and debate, we got the less expensive, less ornate one.  I couldn't find a pic online and my camera is not working right now, but I will update with a pic as soon as I can.

Adrian has never done a project like this...he doesn't mess with electricity...but the HD rep assured us that it was very easy and simple to do, so we brought home our goodies and Adrian got to work.  He took the old chandelier out, assembled the new one, and installed it.  With a minimum of cursing.

I am really pleased with how it turned out.  It makes a huge difference in the feel of the entire downstairs.  I think when we get more things done on the house it's really going to look so nice and natural in here. 

We also set up a survey to have the carpet replaced and picked out our carpet.  We just went with cheap, neutral carpet.  "Warm Sand".  The carpet has to be ordered so it will be a couple of weeks before this comes to fruition but I know that will completely change the look of the house (for the better!).

I am trying to find cheap ways to make a visual impact and make things nice looking and functional since we can't afford to go too crazy on home improvements.  We have ideas and dreams for things that will be more $$ but for now those things are just dreams.

This place is really starting to feel like home and feel "ours". 

When I get more done and can get a camera working I will post pics of befores and afters.  I'm pretty excited.  I'm hoping Adrian will take me to Hobby Lobby today so I can look at swags.  I also need a new rug for the dining room, but I may just have to "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without".