Updated Light Fixture

Original brass fixture

I've spent a major part of February and March looking for a new chandelier for my dining room re-do. I did find a few that I loved but generally I did not love them enough to justify their price tags.  After much angst about the whole thing I mentioned to my friends that I still like the one I had hanging in my dining room even though it was over 20 years old.  I wish I had a photo of it before we took it down but unfortunately, I didn't do that.

I was pretty satisfied with the idea that I really picked the right fixture long ago and that I still loved it. I did hate the worn brassy look of it though.  It screamed 80's and it needed to get an upgrade. Considering that the "in" thing these days is converting old mason jars, jelly jars, and recycled wine bottles into lights, my fixture had stood the test of time since it had the jelly jar look. I was going for something that had a Victorian feel since the house is a Victorian style.

So a friend says, "Why don't you just spray paint it a different color if you love it so much?"  Huh. That never even crossed my mind. It doesn't hurt that I have a really handy husband that can make/fix/create anything.  Off we went to the hardware store to pick out some spary paint.  I chose a color called Aged Copper.  After purchasing it, I discovered that the brand of paint I bought was cheaper at Wal-Mart so I headed over there.  It was cheaper but they did not have the same large selection of colors as the Menards store where I bought the paint.  They did have another color called hand rubbed bronze that looked similar so I bought some of that.  But when I got it home to compare, I really liked the Aged Copper better.  So that's what I used.



Spray painting in progress

Jeff made me these stands when I spray painted a bed last summer. They are basically 2X4s with a piece of an old handle from a broken shovel screwed into the middle of them. It was a great way to raise up sections of a bed frame in order to spray paint the legs without leaning the pieces against anything. So I took those wood chunks and nailed long nails into the top of them ndto have something to dangle the parts of the light fixture on in order to paint the whole pieces all at once. It worked great.

So Jeff put the light back together and hung it up last night. I love how the color complements the new colors of the dining room. So basically I saved over $300 since that was the cheapest light fixture I found that I would consider purchasing. 

Finished chandelier