Playroom Lighting and the Magic Light Trick

Nesting is here, and it’s in full force! I’m purging every room this side of the sun. I’m DIYing every plan I’ve made in the last few years on my Pinterest page. And speaking of my Pinterest page, it’s completely filling up with ideas for sweet baby #3’s nursery, and motherhood tips that I always love reading over again even though it’s going to be just like riding a bike. It always seems to just come back to you. Oh! And that said Pinterest page is also filling up with all things fall. 🙂 Anyone else over this heat of the summer and ready for the beautiful fall colors, cooler temps, and booties in every neutral color I can get my hands on?! Maybe just me. Pregnant. Overheated. And ready to move on from this season. 🙂

So back to my insane nesting happening while I’m pregnant with Baby Kemper #3. I’m working through all the spaces that I’ve been meaning to attack full-on but just haven’t had the energy, the decision making abilities, or just even the ideas to move forward on.

One of those places is our front room playroom/creative space. Before construction, it was a small, closed-off room right to the left of our front door.

**Note: Our ENTIRE basement is full of toys and is considered our “playroom” for the kids. And they have toys in their rooms right now that they play with if they wake up early in the morning. This space isn’t meant for a ton of toys, but rather a place they can do projects, be creative, and have the space to read and relax in their own area. Don’t worry…we have PLENTY of toys 🙂 **

When we did our Home Remodel last fall, we had walls opened up to allow a huge cased opening from our living room to the front room. A perfect open concept to allow for ample room for our kids to play, and a great space to have a creative area for our kids to draw, paint, and eventually, work on their homework.

During construction. What a mess! With the wall opened up, the sun reaches window to window from the front of the house to the back. Not just a wall gone, but massive changes to the light and overall feeling in the home!

After all this mess, it turned out beautifully, but I didn’t have the definitive plan on how to make it right until just this past month.

It’s still very much a work in progress, but today, I wanted to share the lighting options that I made in this space and a great trick I learned from Nesting with Grace called the Magic Light Trick. Genius for those spaces that you don’t have wiring setup or you don’t want to hassle with cords hanging down your wall. One of the best tips I’ve seen and it works like a charm!

Magic Light Trick

When I decided on my lighting, I never even considered the fact that this space didn’t have an overhead light installed already. My contractor and I completely missed this until well after construction was complete. What an oversight!! So I thought I was destined to be a lamp person in this space until my Home Remodel PTSD subsides a bit. 🙂

But I found this great light at Ikea for under $70 and I thought it would be the most perfect addition to the space! The natural wicker wood is perfect to accent so many of my blacks and whites and darker tones in the space.

No wiring? No problem! We hung the light from the ceiling using anchors and wood screws right into the drywall. Then I hopped onto Amazon and snagged these Wireless Puck Lights in Warm White. Here’s what I love about them…

AA batteries. 100 hours of run time. Warm white light. 55 lumens. AND it comes with a remote control!!!

The puck lights come with an adhesive back, but it wasn’t quite strong enough to stick on the uneven underside of these lights, so I went a more DIY approach. I grabbed some thin wire and cut a piece roughly 10″ long. You are able to take the backs of the puck lights off and it conveniently comes with three holes already pre-drilled out of the back so you can string the wire through the back of the puck light. With about 7″ remaining of the wire, I fished the wire through the wicker and tied the wire together at the very top of the light fixture. Essentially, I just attached the puck light with a thin wire any way that I could. AND IT DIDN’T SHOW! Being on top of the light, even standing on top of the stairs looking straight on, you can’t see it.

Nesting with Grace has a great tutorial on her blog and her Instagram stories on how she uses this trick with wall sconces and ceiling lights in her own way. She’s brilliant and this tip is a keeper!

Although the puck lights give off a decent amount of light over our Playroom table from Ikea, I wanted to shine more light and show off some of my favorite pieces I’ve found so far for this space.

I purchased these Acrylic Stacked Ball Lamps from Lamps Plus years ago and they served us so well in our old dining room at our previous home. I knew I wanted to pull those out again and use them here, but I didn’t like the way the clear looked in the space. I wanted them to be antique gold. So off I went to Lowe’s to snag this spray paint in Vintage Gold. One naptime and two coats later, I had the lamps that I would have to pay over double the original cost for!

The last light I’ve purchased for this space is a floor lamp sitting over an accent chair on the opposite wall. The chair won’t be staying…it was an oldie in the corner of our bedroom…but the lamp is BEAUTIFUL! Heavy base, beautiful antique gold and black, sturdy and vintage looking. I love the look and now just need a chair to match! 🙂

The space needs wall shelves, a new chair, pictures, and little accents, but I’m thrilled with just how far we’ve come! A great space to pull out the art supplies, read a book together under the lights, or just to make the perfect sitting area right off our living space. It’s an extension of our living room that is now really coming together! Stay tuned for all the finishing touches!

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