Lamps in the kitchen

One of the major design flaws of our house (which is mostly smart, modern, and efficient) is a lack of windows in the kitchen.  Technically, the kitchen and dining room are one large space, and there is a huge window in the dining room, but the kitchen itself is lacking.

When we moved in, we immediately added a light-colored tile backsplash (over the grey paint of the previous owners) and under-cabinet lights to keep the galley space bright.  But sometimes even that is not enough, and I recently tossed a lamp down on the island, where it has remained.  I love it.  At night it offers a soft glow when we are in the adjacent rooms, and in the now-dark 5 o'clock dinner hour, things are much cozier.

My husband made six different kinds of ribs yesterday, which means my kitchen is not ready for its close-up today, but this cell phone picture from the taste-test gives you an idea of the lamp effect.

And my daughter drew this picture last week.

(I love that in her version the island has nothing but a fruit bowl and a lamp.  In real life it generally also has keys, sunglasses, painted rocks, letters made from glued-together popsicle sticks, and errant pieces of robotics.)

Here are some fancier examples.  What do you think: can you get behind this look?

Source: mariakillam.com via Heather on Pinterest

Kitchenette by Jeffrey Bilhuber, spotted on mariakilliam.com

Source: google.com via Heather on Pinterest

Designer Barry Benson's own kitchen. Originally seen in Domino

Source: fromtherightbank.com via Heather on Pinterest

And Ally recently added to her bulldog collection witht his lamp on From The Right Bank.

Hope you had an excellent holiday weekend.  After taking the weekend completely off, I am hitting the ground running, right now!