Are you a fan of the french farmhouse look? I know I am. But today I’m talking about an entirely different kind of french farmhouse fan! It’s a french farmhouse ceiling fan.
I know, I know. Ceiling fans are no longer ‘in’.
If you are lucky enough to live in a house with central air conditioning, you really don’t have much need for a ceiling fan. However, we live in a 1904 farmhouse with hot water heat. In other words, we have radiators and we do not have duct work. And we have a boiler rather than a furnace. Putting in central a/c is a bit more complicated if you don’t have existing ducts to deliver the cool air throughout your house.
So, we don’t have central a/c and ceiling fans can make all the difference on hot summer days at our house. Especially in the room that I call the piano room. This room is right in the center of our lower level. It’s also the room where we install a window a/c unit in the summer, so we need to move that cool air around and a ceiling fan is the best way to do it.
Our old ceiling fan still worked quite well, but it was dated.
I can’t really remember how long ago we put this particular one in here, but I suspect it was at least 15 years ago or more. I thought it was fabulous at the time. I thought my tomato red walls were pretty amazing too, but they didn’t last nearly as long as the fan.
Anyway, not only was the fan dated looking but those wicker fan blades were difficult to clean.
I began my search for a new fan online and found some gorgeous options that were priced in the $400 and up range, like this one …
But I didn’t want to spend that much.
When my sister and I were out shopping for furniture a couple of weekends ago, we stopped off at our local Menards store on the way home and I found this fan.
It was on sale for $149.99, so I nabbed it.
I liked the fact that the globes sort of look like canning jars giving it a bit of a farmhouse feel.
It wasn’t until we had the fixture installed and I was washing up the globes before putting them on that it occurred to me that it would be pretty easy to add a little more personality to them with some rub on transfers. Plus, I just happened to have a couple of remnants from my IOD Le Petit Rosier transfer that would perfectly fit the three globes.
This was definitely a bit of an experiment. I wasn’t sure if the transfers would look good on the glass. So I started with just one. I figured if I hated it, it would be easier to scrape a transfer off just one globe rather than three.
But I loved it. Of course I did.
The transfers added just a little bit of extra personality to an ‘out of the box’ plain ceiling fan.
Now, I have no idea how well the transfers will hold up over time or whether or not the heat given off by the bulb will cause them to deteriorate in some way. But worst case scenario we have to swap out the globes down the road. That’s fairly easy and cheap.
I will also admit that this little detail isn’t earth shattering and I suspect a fair number of the people who visit our home won’t even notice it.
But I get a kick out of it every time I walk through the room.
And it was a super simple and inexpensive way to add a little french-ness to this farmhouse fan.
By the way, if you look really closely at that picture above you can see how high the snow bank is on the side of our driveway. It’s almost all the way to the top of our privacy fence. Can you see it (look just above the plants on the ledge)? Ha! This stuff is going to take forever to melt if it ever does warm up.
Anyway, if you’re keeping track, that’s the 4th item on my magic wand decorating list checked off. I still have to paint that piano and the walls in this room.
I’m not gonna lie, I really keep procrastinating when it comes to painting the piano. That’s going to be a big job, and will probably be last on the list. But like the little engine that could, ‘I think I can, I think I can’.
In other news, eeeeekkkkkk!! My computer died. Since techie stuff like replacing a computer drives me to drink, I’m not sure how quickly we’ll get a new one up and running. I’m sure I will be spending a good chunk of the weekend on that (the computer, not the drinking … well, maybe both). So don’t panic if I don’t have a post on Monday. Or Tuesday. Or all of next week. Hopefully I’ll be back up and running soon though. Wish me luck!
q is for quandie 
Fun idea adding that bit of personality to your fan.
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Thanks Skip!
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I LOVE the ceiling fan!!
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Next up, painting the piano room walls … hint, hint …
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Even though we have central air, ours is an open floorplan, and heat rises. We installed a ceiling fan to better distribute the air and are convinced they are the best home improvement project ever. We cringe when watching home improvement shows where the fan is the first thing to go. Really…In Texas?! I love your application of transfers. They are subtle but might help reduce the glare that comes with clear globes. Plus you have marked your new property and made it your own, which is very important!
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Somehow my mind immediately thought that adding a transfer was probably better than peeing on it. LOL, sorry. Sometimes I just can’t help the direction my thoughts take …
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Ha! I knew as I hit “post” that I should have worded that differently. Glad you have a sense of humor!
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LOL, I did get a chuckle out of it 😉
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Love this Quandie. It’s the little things that make a room and make our hearts happy! Sorry about the computer. Hate dealing with that type of stuff ! Hope you have a helper to guide you and that it is painless so we can get back to sharing your adventures soon!
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Yep, I have a couple of helpers. Mr. Q will order and set up the new one, and then his brother will help me figure out how to save my photos from the last one and transfer them over to an external hard drive (which I should have been doing all along, but naturally I wasn’t).
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Ohhh! ! We have the same heat but I don’t have many ceiling lights so I can’t use them. But I am looking for some for my daughters home as she really needs them as well. They really do circulate the air and before the humidity sets in I find they are perfect. These are very attractive . I find Edison bulbs emit a lot of heat. Are yours LED?
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Yes they are. Non LED edison bulbs burn out faster than candles, so the only way this was going to be doable was with LED, since we use these a lot. Plus, Q needs all the light She can get in her winter work and photo staging area. The LED lights are as bright as you want them to be.
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The ‘Edison’ bulbs have come a long way since they first came out. The first ones (and even many that are still available) gave off such a yellow light. I found some LED versions at my local hardware store that give off a whiter light, but still have that vintage appeal. I ended up switching out the bulbs that came with this fan, plus several others in my house after finding them.
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Well, in Texas you need ceiling fans in every room even with central air! So other than my breakfast and dining room, we have ceiling fans as light fixtures. It’s so difficult to find fans that are not ugly and not overpriced! You found a good one. And made it better. Be interesting to see it at night, does it throw words on the walls!
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I’m with you totally Laura, it was tough to find one that I liked in a price range that was reasonable. And no, the transfer doesn’t throw words on the walls at all. Which is probably a good thing. That might have seemed like a cool feature at first, but since I paint in this room in the winter it would have made that a bit more difficult 😉
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Good choice. Most ceiling fans look pretty much the same, but this one stands out. Love the globe idea, and like the other lady said, LED light bulbs might be the way to go with less heat being emitted. So sorry about the computer…pain in the butt for sure.
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When we were looking at the fans my sister happened to notice that many of them said “LED” on them including this one. The store clerk told me that meant I had to use LED bulbs in it. But honestly, I’m not sure if that’s true and I can’t find any info about it on the Hunter fan website. So to be on the safe side, I’ll just use LED bulbs in it.
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In the valley in Northern California where the temperature is over 100 for days upon days during the summer air conditioning is not enough. Ceiling fans are wonderful especially for sleeping under. We also had a whole house fan installed and when the temperatures finally cool down at night we turn it on to pull in all the cool air. The whole house fan also pushes all of the hot air out of the attic so the house is cooler and the air conditioner doesn’t have to work as hard when temperatures start to rise the next day. It has helped with our electricity bill!!
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I forget that some people need to use both central air and fans! I’d love to have a whole house fan, I wonder what it would cost to have one installed. Might have to look into that.
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I would have never thought to add transfers to those. Very cool idea.
My condolences on the computer we are in the process of deciding what to buy as well. No fun at all but being without one is even less fun. Good luck in that endeavor.
Dang that’s a lot of snow. How do you manage to keep the driveway cleared off? That seems a bit much even for a snowblower.
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It’s a lot of snow, but it didn’t all fall at once. I takes both Mr. Q and my handyman/neighbor Ken to keep our driveway clear 😉 Ken does the bulk of it with the snowblower (and actually nnK did the snow blowing some this year too), and Mr. Q cleans up the edges, the deck and the trash can area with a shovel. Funny story, we put our old furniture out today for the trash hauler to pick up and Mr. Q had to shovel a spot for it to sit at the curb. The trash hauler told me they wouldn’t take it if we just piled it up on top of the snow bank! It was either shovel a spot for it, or hang on to it until Spring!
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The fan was beautiful and just my style to begin with but you made it fantastic! It’s amazing how a few little word transfers can make such a huge difference. And the difference is HUGE! You once again inspire me with the ideas you come up with. I’m saving this one for future reference. Please keep us updated on how they hold up to the heat put off by the bulbs.
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It really is amazing how just a small change can make a big difference! And I’ll definitely be sure to let you guys know how the transfers hold up over time.
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When we did our house restart (gutted and rebuilt a formerly condemned home), we put ceiling fans in both bedrooms, the living room , and the dining room. I love them for days that aren’t hot enough to warrant the A/C and those random winter days when you need air movement. I’m happy to be out of date on this trend!
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Love the French feel you added to the glass! And please know that here in Texas almost everyone has air conditioning, but even new houses are built with ceiling fans. The fans run on low in every room and help keep the A/C costs down by keeping the air circulating. Even when people are not home, they keep the ceiling fans running on low when the sun is blasting us. If you let your house get too hot during the summer, it takes forever to get the rooms cooled down. I’m a native Californian and had to learn about ceiling fans when I became a Texan in 2005.
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I have to say, I never thought about the idea of using a fan in conjunction with the a/c. That’s just not something we need to think about too much here in Minnesota 😉 But now that you mention it, it does make total sense.
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