Probably the biggest challenge we have had with our living room since we moved in is that there is absolutely no hardwiring for lighting. At all.
This post has been sponsored by Legrand. I only partner with brands I know and trust, we have installed Legrand outlets and switches in multiple rooms in our home. All opinions are my own.
Because this was a new construction home, our developer did have an “upgrade” to add pot lights, but we didn’t want to go to the expense – little did we know that meant there would be no lighting at all in this room!
What we ended up with is a wall switch that controls one outlet into which we plugged a broken floor model lamp from Target (when Target was a thing in Canada, RIP). On the other side of the room we had a small table lamp which was plugged into an outlet 3’ away – I just called the visible cable decorative (like the decorative modem cables in my intro post, remember those?).
While these lamps were functional, all the light was at one end of the room (where there were surfaces to hold lamps) meaning there was no task lighting for anyone sitting on the sofa. So just forget about trying to read anything or play a board game on the coffee table after dark.
Essentially, we needed a better lighting solution and didn’t want to go to the hassle or expense of adding wiring. What’s a girl to do?
Pretend that I have hardwired lights by installing smart lighting controls from Legrand.
Our new lighting plan for this room will include some plug-in wall sconces installed along the side of our sofa, controlled by a smart plug-in switch – these will give a nice light when sitting on the sofa to make reading (or jigsaw puzzles) easier.
On the other side of the room, our new media unit will have integrated LED lighting that will plug into an existing outlet and be controlled by a new smart switch on the wall.
Both switches connect to through wifi and can be controlled by the Legrand app or another home assistant (like our google home).
In addition to the smart lighting accessories Legrand also sent me some new outlets for the living room so everything will match. To add a bit more “smart” to the room, the outlet closest to the sofa has two USB plugs for easy phone charging!
If you recognize the nickel colour it’s because it’s the same collection I installed earlier this year in my home office makeover which I think looks amazing next to our dark blue wall colour.
Speaking of which…I better get painting – I only have two weeks left before the big reveal and lots of things to finish! Thanks for following along with my progress – make sure to check out all the makeovers taking place by visiting the One Room Challenge blog!