The evening after we posted our plans for a small master bathroom update, Sherry jumped in the car to hunt down the blue pendant she’d pinned to her mood board.
We were looking for a Shades of Light fixture at a local outlet called The Decorating Outlet (the same place where we bought the glass pendants over our peninsula, Clara’s capiz chandelier, and the shade we added to the office chandelier).
Sherry worried they wouldn’t have it in stock, but they actually had two. Both were half off the original $159 price, so for about $80 we were soon headed home with a seeded blue glass pendant to replace the uninspiring flush mount that had been in the room. It’s not the cheapest light we’ve bought, but the seeded blue glass is striking in person and felt worth the cost to introduce some color and texture to an otherwise builder-basic bathroom.
One reason for switching to a pendant was to reduce the visual crowding near the shower curtain. This bathroom is tiny, and the previous fixture was large and centered, making it feel too close to the shower. A pendant with a smaller ceiling footprint and translucent glass would both lighten the ceiling plane and create a less cluttered look.
We were excited to add that subtle pop of color, but what we thought would be a quick install turned into a longer project when we removed the old fixture and found a large hole in the ceiling.
The new pendant’s smaller canopy wouldn’t cover the oversized opening, so the light installation jumped down the list until we could patch the ceiling. We were lucky to have leftover drywall in the basement from a previous project, so I cut a piece to size and marked a hole for the fixture box with a drywall saw. The cut wasn’t perfect, but the pendant’s canopy would cover the opening around the box, so a tidy patch job was all we needed.
To secure the patch, I screwed scrap wood into the ceiling to give the new piece something solid to bite into: one piece against a beam and another screwed into the existing drywall. With the patch screwed in and the screw heads sunk, the next steps were sanding, spackling, sanding again, priming, and painting.
Sherry handled the spackling. She did two rounds—apply spackle, let it dry, sand with a sanding block, then repeat—to build up and smooth the seams. Using a sanding block helps keep the surface flat and prevents over-sanding. After priming the raw drywall, we rolled two coats of Rockport Gray paint, feathering beyond the patched area so the repair blended seamlessly into the ceiling.
With the patch finished and the paint dry, we returned to the light. The pendant’s cord was far too long, so I shortened it. I originally trimmed the outer sheath by bending and tearing the plastic back, which exposed the inner wires; a wire stripper is a better tool for this job to avoid stressing the wires. I then trimmed the inner wires to length, removed a small amount of insulation from the tips, and prepared the connections. Wiring a fixture is easier with two people: one to support the fixture while the other completes the wire nuts and secures the canopy.
Once installed, the pendant looked great. It sits noticeably farther from the shower bar than the old wide fixture did, and it hangs high enough to meet local clearance requirements (our area requires at least 6’8″ from the bottom of a fixture to the floor; ours is 6’10”). As a reminder if you’re tackling something similar, check your local electrical and building codes—pendants aren’t allowed over tubs or inside showers in many jurisdictions.
In photos the blue reads brighter than it does in real life; in person it’s a soft sea-glass blue that complements the gray walls, white curtain, and sand accents. The clear bulb prevents a blue tint in the room, and the seeded glass casts a gentle, flecked reflection on the ceiling that’s quite flattering. The chrome canopy and trim tie in with our other bathroom hardware, so the new fixture feels cohesive with the space.
Ideally, the fixture would be centered in the toilet half of the bathroom in front of the window, but we wanted a quick update without doing anything heavy-duty right now. Centering or relocating the light may happen in Phase Two, when we tackle floor tile and other more involved projects.
We did worry about two things before installing: whether a single 60-watt bulb would light the room adequately and whether the blue glass would cast an odd color. Thankfully, the clear bulb provides plenty of usable light and no strange color shift. The seeded glass creates a soft pattern rather than an overpowering hue, so the room reads normal—just livelier and more personal.
Despite the extra work to patch the ceiling, we’re really happy with how the pendant brightens the small bathroom and adds character. We plan to bring in a few more touches—blue, green, white, and gray artwork, fresh bright white trim paint, and some other updates—to pull the whole look together.
Here’s our updated bathroom to-do list:
paint the walls so they have some contrastreplace the boob light- paint the cream trim bright white (it looks dingy next to the bright white switch)
- hang bathroom-friendly art
- replace the toilet with a classic white model
- add privacy to the window
- remove the door briefly and shave the bottom so a rug fits and the door clears the floor register
- replace the border tile around the room (maybe Phase Two)
- replace the floor tile down the road to break up the expanse
What did you work on this weekend? Did you add any color to a room or uncover an unexpected ceiling hole hidden by a fixture?
Psst—To follow our bathroom mini-renovation from the start, see our planning and painting posts to catch up.
Pssst—It turns out our timing was coincidental: today is “Light It Up Blue” day for Autism Awareness.