How to Glam-Up Your LED Light Bulbs: Part 1

Part of my kitchen and breakfast room upgrade included changing out the light fixtures. I originally had a drum-type chandy over our old breakfast table that I knew wouldn't work with what I was going with in the new design, so I bought the Industrial Chandelier from West Elm. I really liked it because it was simple and would not obstruct my view into the family room from the kitchen:

Most of the pics showed the chandy with those old-timey Edison bulbs, but I spotted a few people modernizing this beauty with big, round bulbs, and that's exactly what I wanted.

However, when we installed the chandelier and put in big, clear glass incandescent bulbs like this, the whole chandelier buzzed like an industrial bug zapper at a trailer park:

To make matters worse, the light fixture was installed on a switch with a dimmer, so when we dimmed the lights the buzzing got louder. Finally we experimented with other bulbs to see if it was the dimmer or the bulbs, and sadly, my pretty chandelier relented to being used with boring, incandescent 60w bulbs.

However, I had a hunch about the new LED bulbs I've seen in the stores, so we bought one, screwed it in, and eureka...no buzzing!

But as much as I loved the modern shape and size of the LED bulbs, I DID NOT like the warning and product information ink that was stamped at the bottom of the bulb. It was really an eyesore (to me anyway):

So I thought, "Hmm, I wonder if a little nail polish would take this off," and I was off to experiment. First I grabbed a bulb, some nail polish remover, some cotton balls, and some scissors to hack my way through the clam-shell packaging. Why do they make that stuff so damn difficult to get through???

BTW, I decided to go with a 40w Warm White LED and double-checked to make sure it was dimmable. The wattage is lower than what was there before, but I felt it actually put out more light than the 60w incandescent bulbs!

So, I started rubbing off the ink...it was working!

It worked!!! Now, 5 more to go...

After they were all done, we screwed them in and I LOVED IT!!! Instant modernization and GLAM!!!

So much better, don't you think? I loved how these new LED bulbs instantly gave me a more modern look and even better...didn't buzz! 

LED bulbs are an investment, as each one of these bulbs cost around $12-$14 a piece, which is no small amount of change when you need six of them for one light fixture. However, they do not put off any heat and they are guaranteed to last 25 years, which means we will probably no longer have this fixture before those bulbs burn out, so it was an investment!