The Fixture Fix

Just popping in this morning since I'm still juggling those two hats from last week. I did want to start the week with a little makeover yakabout. It's from the dining room that I've been working on forever now. One day soon... and I really do mean it this time, Sharon... I will provide that after picture.

It's just that I'm one of those Ta Da kinds of gals, and every time I get ready to Ta Da, I discover yet another glaring error needing to be ta done.

So... please try really hard not to notice how pretty the new chairs look around my table. No, really... don't peek. I'm saving that for the Ta Da.  I even went so far as to take a lousy picture just to obscure your vision.

Instead, please  direct your attention to the glaring error in the room. 

Yes, it's literally glaring. 

Oh  how I loathe that  big fat '80s brasselier.  For one, the builder hung it up too high. To lower it would require rewiring, and I don't want to spend money on an electrician for an unloved brasselier.

What I really want in there is a true crystal chandelier, an antique or  vintage one if possible. For that, I would hire the electrician. I've wanted a lovely vintage chandelier for as long as I've been married. I kind of gave up the dream for a decade or so because *they* said that such fixtures were no longer in style.

Baloney. Beautiful just doesn't go out of style. Plus, about a year ago, I grew up and decided that I was too 50 to worry about it.  I'm the one who has to live here.  So I'm saving and hunting for the perfect antique chandelier.  Of course, I still needed to do something about the brasselier.

Lately, I have fallen in love with yet another vintage look.

This one. 

(screen shot from someone's wedding video.)

I decided to see if I could just fake the look myself.

 I had seen Vanessa At The Picket Fence do something similar a few years ago. 

So we took it down... 

Before... shiny.

During... 

not so shiny. 

I used about 2 cans of Rustoleum Metallics in antique brass to get it to that point. 

 (Tip: It goes on with zero drip marks if  sprayed in short spurts, over and over and over. ) 

Then, I kept playing with additions of espresso craft paint with a dry brush for a few days until I got the aged look that I wanted.  In the meantime, I bid on some vintage crystal prisms on Ebay.

Which I cleaned and sparkled and used to bling the bobeche.

And Ta-D-.....

Ok, not quite Ta Da yet.

 I'm still playing with the number of prisms per bobeche and a few other ideas, but you get the drift.  All told, it took less than forty dollars out of the chandelier fund and I have a bunch of crystals left. Not bad at all for a transitional light fixture, don't you think?

And I'll throw one more tip in for free: If you don't want to dent your beautiful table top by dropping vintage crystal prisms on it when you are playing, cover it with some big fluffy towels.

Don't ask me how I found out...

*****

That's all for me.
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