Pulled the plate off, ceiling wires down, totally lost on how to hook up this light.
 

When we moved in there was a blank plate above where a dining room table would go. I've since gotten a light I want to put in place (actually, I got a hallway light that came in a 2 pack, so I want to utilize the 2nd one here).

The light fixture I have is an average 2 light dome. Two blacks, two whites.

There's a dimmer on the one wall that I *assume* goes here? I have no idea. The dimmer doesn't work anywhere else so it would only make sense the non-functional dimmer goes to the unhooked light fixture.

At any rate, can anybody make sense of this wiring? I'm not really sure what *should* go where... and of course... I want to do it right.

http://i.imgur.com/g7KIc.jpg

Hook the (2) black wires from the fixture up to the lone red wire.

Hook the (2) white wires from the fixture to the white wires on the right side of the picture (one of those whites is coming from the same cable as the red).

Before doing this,pull the dimmer and verify what wires are running to it.

Just to make sure - in order to use the dimmer, I need to have a "dimmer approved" light fixture... no? I can't just use the dimmer with ANY light, can I?

The dimmer really isn't much of a concern. If it's there, great. Why not? If it's a problem, I just won't use it and stick to a regular lighting method.

I am not an electrician but from what I understand, that dimmer approved has more to do with when using CFL bulb setup

I'm also not an electrician, but I know a little bit about dimmers. Incandescent dimmers work only with incandescent bulbs or with non-incandescent bulbs that are designed to work with such dimmers. The way the dimmer chops up the current isn't compatible with the electronics in most CFLs and LED bulbs. Using a regular CFL with such a dimmer will cause intolerable flickering or other problems.

If your fixture takes a regular incandescent bulb and has no electronic controls, and you have a regular incandescent dimmer, it should work.

How would you recommend doing that, especially if the dimmer and the box are not near one another?