Thursday 28 March 2013

Maskros-ing

Guess what! We finally put up the light we bought 3 months ago! Readers, meet Maskros. He enjoys hanging out, brightening up people's moods, and splashing fun patterns on the wall. 


But let's rewind a little bit. I am going to overshare this whole light switcheroo process with y'all (I'm not from the south, I just like to pretend I'm Britney sometimes. Especially when I scream and shout... and let it all out.)

Our house is 7 years old and I'm 99.9% sure that this boob light was part of the original design. Unless the previous owners had questionable taste and chose this themselves. Why boob? Because look at it.


Babies would salivate looking at that thing. Not cute for our staircase.


I knew I wanted to replace it the minute I saw it during our first walk-through but it took a while for me to pick a worthy replacement. YHL taught me to never settle. And of course, my favouritestoreintheworld delivered. Ikea has had Maskros on their shelves probably since I was in diapers, but I never really thought anything of it. Until I saw this pinterest post of him in a superduper cute nursery. It was kind of like a guy in the friend zone that comes back from summer vacation and is all-of-the-sudden-for-no-reason hunky. Ew did I just say hunky? To put in other words, I saw Maskros in a whole different light (ha!).



We brought him home sometime in January with big smiles on our faces and then realized we don't have a ladder tall enough to reach ceiling in the straircase. Also, neither me nor Hubs were brave enough to get up that high on a balcony-style landing.
 
 
See what I mean? Boomer is pretending to be the ladder. I should also mention that neither one of us have ANY electrical experience beyond changing a burnt-out lightbulb. Thus we enlisted the help of our favourite handyman cousin to help us out. And our friends were more than happy to lend out a suitable ladder.

Next comes assembly. I wanted to make sure that it was in a ready-to-hang state by the time our cousin came by. I love researching anything and everything beforehand and I found this trusty Ikea video that goes through the steps of putting Maskros together. Doesn't she make it look so easy? I was excited.
 


I hung the base from the shower curtain rod in our guest bathroom so that it was low enough for me to access all points and started attaching all the "stems."



After all the stems were on, it was time for the petals.
 
 
There were 84 of these paper snowflake-looking things and Ikea said they just "clicked" into place. This had papercut written all over it. I was nervous.
 
 
Ready for a time lapse photo party?
 




 
And we're done! It took me exactly 23 minutes and 43 seconds to click all the petals on. Subtract a couple minutes for picture taking. Oh, and papercut count: 0. Excuse me while I brush some dirt off my shoulder.
 
Ok back. Fast forward to the next day. Cousin came while I was at work and Maskros was waiting for me all lit and happy when I got home.
 
 
I love the way he looks alongside the gallery wall. Fun fact: maskros means dandelion in Swedish. Bet you didn't see that one coming! #captainobvious
 
 
 
 Meanwhile, boob light is crying.
 
 
Isn't that just the saddest picture you have ever seen? Not to worry though, we are looking for a loving new home for Boobie on Kijiji. Any takers?
 
So that's the story of how we adopted Maskros. I think he likes it here. And I love taking turns staring at him and his neighbour Mr. Gallery Wall.
 
xoxo, E
 
PS - Woop-aaaaaaaaa close up in your face.
 

2 comments:

  1. Love this! I need a new chandy for my new house and considered this. Do you think it gives off enough light with only one bulb that high up? Congrats on no paper cuts, that is impressive ;)

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    1. Thanks for visiting!

      I lovelovelove Maskros! He lives in a pretty small space in our house but lights everything up very well. My advice would be to buy the recommended LED bulb from Ikea. We tried a different one and it wasn't as bright. And LED > Flourescent!

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