Giving New Life to an Old Light Fixture

Sometimes I get the wildest ideas.

I don't know how it came about, but I decided I wanted to change the light fixture in my dining room.  I have never been a real big fan of gold fixtures, and after pricing new fixtures, I wanted to try my hand at something risky...yet something fun.

I was going to re-do my existing light fixture!  Not only would it be much cheaper, but it would also guarantee a perfect fit back into the ceiling.  I would simply use the same mounting kit!

 

My original dining room light is original to the home, I assume.  It's a fairly ugly (to me) gold fixture complete with a brown and black center piece of wood.  Seriously, I hate it!  It's hideous.

The original beast in all her (un)glory.

This just screams 1980 to me.

After doing some research on colors and products, I elected to go with Rustoleum's spray paint.  I bought a single bottle from Wal-Mart for $6.87.  Agh, if this didn't work, I was going to be mad!!!  I hate wasting money.  :)

Once back at home, I had to figure out how I was going to set this project up.  Mom and Dad were in Cleveland visiting, so they were able to watch me in my finest!  ha!  I took the fixture down and decided to prop it up outside where I could spraypaint it.  I simply hung it on a rake between two birdhouse posts.  Works for me!

I taped up the electrical wires after unweaving them through the mountain chain (which would also be painted).  I then took toilet paper rolls from the trash and mounted those over the five ceramic bulb housings.  I was pretty proud of that move.

Ready for paint!

And then I started painting!!!  I have a little bit of experience with spraypainting over the years, and if there is anything I've learned, it's that patience is key.  If you think you need one more spray path, then stop.  Wait.  Let it dry.  For the moment you get just a hair too much on there, the paint starts to run.  It's all about being patient.

So that's what I did.  Little by little.  I had a tiny 5 MPH wind to deal with, but that was enough to blow it back at me!  And it kept on shifting!  But the project was going very smoothly.  The light fixture was transforming before our very eyes!

She's transformed!

I had sanded the ceiling cover to get the decent amount of rust off of it, then spraypainted that over an old potato chip bag.  Hey, whatever is lyin' around is fair game.  :)

The old rusty cover now looked glossy and new!

After several passes of paint, I was done!!!  Mom had cleaned up the dusty and dirty glass covers, and so we assembled the light fixture back together.  I hung it in my dining room, and oh what a difference!  It's the SAME light!!! But it's nowhere close to the same light!!!

The gorgeous "new" light fixture!  Only $7!

 

No more gold!

Good-bye old glass!  Hello modern light!

This is pretty fun.  And $7 beats $100 any day.