I heard someone once say, “Lighting in a home is like jewelry on a woman.” It could not be more true. You could make it bold or brash. Glitzy or blingy. Subtle or simple. The options were endless. The very first light fixtures I purchased were for our gallery. I had known from the moment I found the picture I used as the inspiration for the gallery that those were the light fixtures I wanted to duplicate. So, I purchased them before the foundation was poured. I didn’t want to risk getting a year and a half down the road when it was time for lighting to discover they were discontinued. Now, as we were dealing with supply chain issues, I was grateful that they were already nestled in my garage.

The blueprints lay scattered across the kitchen island. The directive from our builder was to work on our lighting schematics. Meaning, I needed to figure out where every light fixture and every outlet was going to go. It all had to be done before he closed up the insides of our baby to make her a toddler. (I don’t know why I think she’s a girl.) As I studied the plans and perused through my binder, I began to see it all in my imagination. Room by room I walked. Marking and drawing and dreaming.

I drew where the three black sconces that would hover over the three kitchen windows on the sink wall would go. I drew where the large copper lantern over the kitchen table and some yet to be determined chandelier over the island would hover. I marked places for the outlets in the island, and one for the coffee pot hidden inside the future cabinet.

I moved to the family room and circled where I needed an outlet in the floor underneath where the piano would eventually sit and beneath the sofa for tableside lamps. I drew where the sconces on the bookcase would hang, and where the three large mercury glass fixtures would hang above the brick floor of the gallery.

Moving outside I drew where every sconce would go, where every ceiling fan would hang, and where the recessed cans needed to be. I had to decide what would run on gas and what would be electric. Then I thought through where plugs would be a gift for outside working, when the computer battery had drained, and a plug was needed for rescue.

Then I moved to the master bedroom, marking the flush mount in the hall and the chandelier above the bed and the recessed cans in the stained wood ceiling. I drew the circles where the bedside sconces would go, and where I’d need plugs for lamps and phone cords. Room by room I went. Circle by circle. Outlet by outlet. Light fixture by light fixture. When the blueprint was covered with vision, the research began.

Much of the choosing of light fixtures was like a scavenger hunt, as I had inspiration pictures for many, but now, I had to find them. Scouring internet site after internet site, vendor after vendor, choice after choice, measurement after measurement. I found the cutest little silver sconces for the girl’s bunk, and gold and glass light fixtures for the boy’s that looked like you would find them on a ship. I found the black chandelier with the paper shades to hang over the island, forgoing the current trend of large double pendants. I found the large billiard fixture with three large round fabric shades that would be perfect over the pool table.

As I was lost in a world of halogen and LED, I remembered. I slipped from my stool and headed into the upstairs closet. I opened the box marked “girl’s chandelier” and pulled it from its home. I sat it in front of me and remembered. This chandelier had been with me for almost two decades. When my first husband had opened his design firm, he had purchased an existing store. The store had been this beautiful home and gift store. This chandelier came with the purchase of the existing business. I had hidden it away longing for the day I could put it in a nursery of my own. I knew in that moment it would finally have a home. Not in the way I had hoped, but in a way that would be perfect. It would hang between the bunks in the girl’s room.

Lord willing, for years to come, my precious nieces, who have been as close to children of my own as I will ever have, along with the grandbabies that will hopefully one day fill those beds with their little bodies, this piece will light their bedtime stories, their giggles and sleepy wake-up haze. I swiped at the tears that were falling and was grateful for another moment to create a home. I prayed quietly that there wouldn’t only be natural light, but that in each heart that arrived, God would shine His supernatural light to any dark place. Oh yes, let there be light.