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Besides paint, there’s nothing that makes a bigger impact than lighting in the home.

Lighting goes a long way in defining the space and your decor style, creating a mood, and drawing the eye where you it to be. But because most homes come already equipped with lighting, homeowners tend to live with fixtures that they don’t love for a long time.

If you want to freshen up your home, my advice is to swap out a light fixture or two with something that makes you smile, something that’s really you.

Types of Light Fixtures

Sources for light fixtures online

Best Places to Put New Light fixtures

Think about where the lighting in your home is most important to you and most impactful–above your kitchen island or dining table, or maybe even in your bathroom.

If you’re a bath taker, maybe you’re tired of gazing up from your suds at something that looks like this. Put that terrific fixture that you splurge on somewhere you can truly enjoy it–and often.

I say “splurge” because lighting tends not to come cheap. The great light fixtures, the ones that take your breath away, are usually several hundred dollars and up, although you may have some luck finding deals on Etsy, eBay, and Craiglist.

If you’ve already combed the lighting aisles at Home Depot and Lowe’s and/or browsed familiar stops like Pottery Barn and West Elm and you’re not finding anything that knocks your socks off, you may want to check out the five following online sources for lighting:

Sources for Lighting Fixtures

One//Lighting by Gregory: This ecommerce site is a little hit or miss in that you’ll see cheap, outdated stuff mixed right in with truly great finds. There are plenty of affordable pieces here, including the mini chandelier pictured above, now on sale for $123.90. Lighting by Gregory has an extensive Manhattan showroom, but its online outpost is the next best thing, boasting more than 10,000 chandeliers alone. A search tool lets you filter by finish, style, brand, price, and light source.

Two//Ballard Designs: Ballard offers reasonably priced European-inspired fixtures like the chandy pictured above ($399), which is a best-seller for this Pottery Barn competitor.

Three//Circa Lighting: These luxe, elegant, splurge-worthy fixtures are worth decorating an entire room around. Their flush mount fixtures, like the Basil model shown here, are especially stunning.

Four//Southern Electric Lights: Handcrafted right here in Nashville, these distinctive rustic and industrial-style lights have netted founder Adam Gatchel coverage in The New York Times, Southern Living, and on WestElm.com, Pennyweightonline.com, Fab.com, and ApartmentTherapy.com.

Five// Layla Grayce: Perhaps my favorite among this bunch of online shops, Layla Grayce offers both shabby chic and modern fixtures, and all of them are knock-outs. Some are wildly expensive (in the thousands), while others are surprisingly affordable.

If you’re looking for something vintage or handcrafted, you may want to check out the Nashville Flea Market or the Gas Lamp Antique Mall. There’s also a cute little shop in Brentwood called C’est Moi where we’ve found awesome custom fixtures.

Do you have any favorite places to shop for lighting fixtures, either online or in Nashville?