Are you wanting to stick with a flush-mount, or do you want a chandelier of some kind? A photo of your DR showing your furniture and decor choices would help us offer you good suggestions.

I'd like to keep it flush mounted, or semi-flush mounted as my DH is quite tall and likely to bump his head on a chandelier. The light is in the center of the dining area, but really, during daily life, we don't center the table under the light since there's just the two of us--we push it against the wall & it then is under a window where the two of us get plenty of natural light.

As for furniture and decor choices, we have hardwood floors, the table is a big heavy dark table circa the early 1900s--it belonged to my grandmother--and we have it's matching chairs and buffet. Our furniture is California casual.

Thanks for any ideas!

Have you browsed thru Lampsplus?

The link below will take you to their semi-flush lights but you may want to also look thru their flush mounts. Since you're wanting more light I'd look for fixtures that throw the light downward, then put a dimmer on your switch. That way you can add the max wattage and then control it at the switch.

Due to their design, the majority of flush mounts don't give off good light.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lampsplus

If you can't get enough light from the existing fixture & you can't safely increase the wattage inside the existing fixture, and if your table--your antique table--is over by the window anyway, maybe you should consider lowering the wattage in that ceiling fixture to just a soft glow and using a small-scale table lamp for your meals. There are handsome mica-shaded lamps & copies of Tiffany lamps that would relate to the period of your furniture, throw brighter light where you want in--onto the table & the food--and, because the shade would be domed, not open at the top, throw a soft, flattering light on the two of you.

Expensive, old-style restaurants made their diners look good with pink linens & shaded lamps, but in today's trendy joints, cold, brilliant pinspots shooting down from above highlight every wrinkle & pore and cast the eyes into dark hollows. Who wants to eat with a ghoul?

I have a similar issue with a junction box in the middle of the room. My plan is to put up a monorail system with two pendants over the table and a couple extra pivot spots for the art on the walls. In the meantime, we use an old wrought iron reading lamp to light the table. Not great, but its got more charm than my icky ceiling fixture.

Otherwise, I would get a semi-flush. The beauty of a semi-flush is that it cast lights downward but also spills a lot of light up to the ceiling, which then reflects back into your room.

I have LED cans in my kitchen. They do not yet have the dimming technology quite figured out and those babies dump a lot of light into a room. Great for my counter work area, but not so nice for dining.

I'm off to buy a pink tablecloth now...

Have you tried using compact fluorescent bulbs? They use less wattage and put out less heat so you can get a higher wattage-equivalent for more light. Here's info. I got from the GE website:

Standard Bulb CFL Bulb
40w = 10w
60w = 13w-15w
75w = 20w
100w = 26w-29w
150w = 38w-42w
250w-300w = 55w

Because the wattage of a CFL bulb is much lower than that of an incandescent, you can use higher wattage CFL giving you the equivalent light of a higher wattage incandescent. For example: If your fixture says not to exceed 60 watts, you can use a 15 watt CFL to get the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb or use up to a 42 watt CFL and increase the amount of light.

and also

Can I use a compact fluorescent light bulb with a dimmer switch?
To use a compact fluorescent bulb on a dimmer switch, you must buy a bulb that's specifically made to work with dimmers (check the package). GE makes a dimming compact fluorescent light bulb (called the Energy Smart Dimming Spiralsî) that is specially designed for use with dimming switches. We don't recommend using regular compact fluorescent bulbs with dimming switches, since this can shorten bulb life. (Using a regular compact fluorescent bulb with a dimmer will also nullify the bulb's warranty.)

sooz, be careful with ordering an online replacement because your light looks like the same type of fixture I had in my hallway. I thought it would be no big deal to just switch it out and went to a store similar to Home Depot. I fell in love with a new light and decided to replace both hall lights with the new ones.

I got home and surprise, the new light is totally different from the old light. The new light can only hook to a squarish box in the ceiling and mine are old round ones. The only way to use the new lights was to replace the boxes in the ceiling which meant cutting the drywall, repairing the drywall, and repainting what we just had painted a year ago!

The square box was thinner than the round box on two sides so the light fixture would not cover the holes. Hey, I consider myself a fairly good diy type and have switched lights before but this was a whole new challenge. Instead of just switching the wires and screwing the fixture to the box, it was major work (well to me.) No way was I doing that.

Lots of these new lights are made for square boxes. Luckily, the store was local and when I returned them, I had a clerk go through and show me all of the lights that would hook up to a round box. There were only a few and none as pretty as the ones I fell in love with. What a disappointment but at least I had not ordered online and had to ship them back which is why I warned you. What a pain that is!

Climb up there and unscrew the screws and look at your box that the fixture connects to. If your house is fairly new, it will most likely have the new square boxes and you can pick almost anything. I will cross my fingers for you. As for me, I know if I have to repaint anytime soon, changing out the light boxes will be the first step. Good luck!

Thanks everyone for all the helpful ideas, link and especially for the info about the round box/square box! I had no idea!

Anyway, I went over to the Lamps Plus website, picked out a few semi flush fixtures that I liked, read the reviews, and narrowed it down. I just got back from my local Lamps Plus and picked up the semi-flush mount fixture pictured below. It takes two 100W light bulbs, so that will be a nice change, especially if I use CFL --and I can also change out the on/off switch and use a dimmer! With my current fixture, the light always seemed dim anyway, so no need to have a dimmer switch.

I can't use a compact fluorescent bulbs in the current light fixture because I read that CFL are not supposed to be "enclosed" in anything...since there are no holes for heat dissipation, using CFL wouldn't work. However, with my new fixture, I will be able to use the CFL. Thanks, lovesummer, for the chart you included from the GE website! Very helpful!

Thank you ALL again, for all your help!
Smiles,
Sooz

Oh, I LOVE that one! It's so pretty. That will look great in your dining room. What a good shopper! Will you come and help me now? I hate my hall lights.

So did you have the old round box or is that for the newer squarish one? I would love to get one like that too!

Thanks for the compliments, Fidoprincess! I'd love to come and help you, but we probably live on opposite sides of the USA!

Anyway, we plan to put it up this weekend, so I'll post back about whether or not we have a round box or a square box.
Which ones did they use in 1986 or 1987 ?

Yikes! You are not supposed to put CFL bulbs in a flush mounted fixture? I had never heard that. Are we in danger of a fire?

JR

I love the fixture you have chosen, sooz!

I love the new fixture! I also am curious regarding not putting CFL bulbs in an enclosed fixture. I have never heard this. In fact, I would expect CFL bulbs to put out less heat than an incandescent bulb, but I'm not an expert. In fact, isn't that what lovesummer was saying?

The GE FAQ was a little ambiguous on the subject, but I'd think that a hanging fixture, even an enclosed one, would work. They say:

Can I use a compact fluorescent light bulb in an enclosed light fixture?
Compact fluorescent light bulbs may generally be used in enclosed fixtures as long as the enclosed fixture is not recessed. Totally enclosed recessed fixtures (for example, a ceiling can light with a cover over the bulb) create temperatures that are too high to allow the use of a compact fluorescent bulb.

All I know is that when I read the package on my CFL, it says to not use it in an enclosed light fixture. I took that to mean ANY enclosed light fixture, because it didn't specifically say anything about a cam light or recessed fixture. In fact, we replaced the glass "globe" fixtures in the kitchen with the plastic globes and drilled holes in them to help dissipate any heat! Maybe that was overkill in light of what I'm reading now, but I erred on the side of safety based on what the package said. This was a few years ago, mind you, so maybe the wording on the packages has changed?

Beautiful new light! I love it. That's one less boob light in the world! Cause for celebration!

Whew! Okay, one less boob light in the world, like sailorgirl said! lol

Fidoprincess, we do have one of the newer squarish boxes.

The ground wire is a mystery, though, as it only came out of the old light fixture itself and was not inside the ceiling box-- I'm looking into making sure we're okay with the way we have the light "grounded" to the ground screw, so I'll be posting this on the Lighting forum too!

The old light had a ground wire that ran from the ground screw to a metal part of the old light. I thought the ground wire was supposed to come out of the ceiling box. Anyone know? Meanwhile, we're keeping it off until I find out if we did the ground wire correctly.

The new semi flush light sure looks pretty and gives off plenty of light!

Since we're talking about bulbs here, I want to say that we switched out our whole house in June, and I was amazed at the variety of CF bulbs now available.

We purchased at Lowes, and it was between $500-600 to do the whole house. (yes, we did em all!)

They make flood lights, outdoor flood lights, Dimmable outdoor flood lights, candelabra bulbs with the tiny base, ceiling fan bulbs, Dimmable candelabra bulbs, globe lights for fixtures with exposed bulbs, and 3 way bulbs.

All in 3 different light specturms: cool, warm, and not sure of the third maybe daylight.

Along with a new AC unit and added insulation, our July electric bill was 1/2 of the previous year.