Quick Fix: Raising a Light Fixture

So I mentioned in my last post that I had done another little project in the dining room besides our little gallery wall. Well, this little project had to do with the lighting fixture hanging above our dining room table. You see, this thing hung pretty low. Even with the table beneath it, I would still bonk my head on it from time to time. It was becoming pretty annoying.

Probably the most annoying part though was the fact that once we hung up the gallery wall of picture frames, when you sat in our living room, the top frames were being blocked. Something had to be done to fix this problem.

See what I mean?

Living in an apartment our fix had to be something that we could easily undo whenever we moved. At first the hubby used these rings that we had lying around the apartment. I think he was hoping to be able to close them, but the weight of the chains and light fixture didn't make that possible. I loved the fact that the light was higher so that we could admire our gallery wall better from the living room. But, I was not a fan of those silver rings.

So, we headed out to the store and picked up these little guys.

We also picked up a can of oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. Although we didn't like having to buy a brand new bottle of spray paint for such a little project, we knew we'd end up using this stuff in future projects.

I took the little s-hooks outside on the balcony and gave them a couple coats each. I wasn't sure if we'd need two hooks or just one, but we bought two to be on the safe side.

Once everything dried, the hubby took out the old silver rings and replaced them with the hooks.

It looks sooo much better now! Granted, you still see the jumbled mess at the top of the chain, but at least now you aren't looking at the random bit of silver sticking out like a sore thumb. From the living room point of view, you can't even see the small hook that we used.

And I love the fact that you can see the new gallery wall without the light fixture obstructing the view. Too bad that pile of paper clutter is ruining the shot, huh? Oh well. No one's house is 100% spotless, 100% of the time, right?

Anyone else out there have issues with low-hanging lighting fixtures? How did you fix it?