By far, the room that I’m most excited to decorate and finish out is my office/study/library. And while I wait for the beautiful built-ins that Tom & I are planning, I keep myself busy searching for the smaller items, like light fixtures, a reading chair, a writing desk, etc.

First up – the light fixture! We had the builder rough-in electric in the ceiling, but wanted to pick out a more unique fixture than the builder offered. At first, the selection process seemed like a no-brainer. We already had a funky Ikea Kryssbo fixture that we never put up in our condo, and I immediately thought it would look super cool in my office.

The good part? It was easy to assemble and install, and it gave the room a fun modern feel. The bad part? It tripped our circuit breaker. Apparently we have the latest up-to-code breaker faults in our circuit breaker box. Which, we learned, are super-sensitive. And the built-in transformer will trip the breakers every. single. time. So, the Ikea fixture came down, and the search was on for a new one.

I have been really drawn to the pendant lights with drum shades lately. And since we already have a nice dining room and kitchen fixture, I thought it would be fun to try a pendant drum in an office. We scoped out Lowe’s, Home Depot, Amazon and Overstock.com without much luck. My criteria for a light/shade included:

– affordable (no more than $200)

– neutral

– provide enough light so I can comfortably read or work without squinting (post-Ikea failure, we decided that fixture wasn’t bright enough, anyway)

I was originally drawn to this patterned fabric shade from Amazon.com:

but wanted something with more pizazz.

I considered a more glamorous option:

but this was too much pizazz.

Then, One day at Lowe’s, we decided to check out the lighting section for kicks – and there it was! Simple yet detailed, contemporary but not too modern. And the best part? Only $99!