An easy upgrade
By Never teh BrideThe Beard and I were in the Home Depot the other day buying a standard-sized drop in cast iron sink to replace the horrid two-piece stainless steel monstrosity that was slowly sinking into the cabinet underneath. It so happens that we need a new kitchen lighting fixture, so as we were walking down the lighting aisle, The Beard casually asked me if I’d like a big, fancy chandelier.
And I thought, yes, of course I would, thank you very much. But I think I’d prefer something that didn’t look like it came straight out of someone else’s gram’s dining room. I do rather like these:
On the subject of chandeliers, I came across a cool tip in some magazine or another. It suggested buying a second-hand brass chandelier from the local Goodwill and spray painting the whole thing white to make a cool shabby chic lighting fixture. There was a wonderful before-and-after that I naturally cannot find anywhere online, but I did find just such a chandelier painted blue on Curbly.
I think it’s lovely and one hell of an easy upgrade. Your thoughts?
February 8th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Having spray-painted some lamps in my time, I wouldn’t advise anyone to spray-paint a brass chandelier without doing some kind of pre-treatment or else having much, much better spray-painting skills than I do. I never did manage to get my lamps to have even color all over, even after four coats of paint. They look distinctly home-made: home-made in the “painted by a 3-year-old” sense rather than the “I’m the next Martha Stewart” sense. But then, I am not exactly the queen of spray-paint.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
I love it so much I might have to run out and buy one at a secondhand store and paint it pink, to go with the dining room. Really.
February 9th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
I’ve done something similar, but stripped out the wiring first (call it a candle-ier) if you will. I’ve done one for my back porch and my mom’s front porch. JaneC, I use Krylon Fusion and it is a the uncoordinated girl’s best friend!
February 9th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
The candle-ier? I love it!
February 11th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I’m married to the king of garage sale and thrift store finds. Probably the best thing in the house is the chandelier he found with a free sign by the side of the road when his mother just happened to desperately need a new lighting fixture for the dining room. We’ve been talking about doing some redecorating of late, and when I started talking about the dining room the first thing he said was ‘we can get rid of that old chandelier.’ My response? ‘Are you kidding me??? I’m going to base the room around it!’
No spray painting, though. It’s a fabulous combination of black iron and dark wood with knobbly glass. When I paint this room in deep, lush colors and toss some heavy velvet curtains over the windows, it’s going to look beyond awesome.
But if a chandelier is just meh and a coat of paint might brighten it up properly, I say test your spray painting skills on something small of the same materials. If that works out, go for it! I’m kind of in love with that blue chandelier now.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Are people still going to use this, its virtually obsolete now isnt it ?
June 16th, 2008 at 12:30 am
I like this because of all the DIY projects out there, this one actually looks like something I could do on ym own.