I have wanted to tackle painting a chandelier ever since my dear buds, Lydia and Steve, painted their kitchen chandelier bright orange, which just MADE their kitchen {in addition to their chalkboard wall and king-headboard-turned-bench and, oh, it is just an awesome kitchen}.
This chandelier lives above our kitchen table. I have never really liked it, but it's a nice color and shape, so it was fine. Fine, but kind of wah-wah. I have a beef with it, however, that finally made me do something about it.
It's this. The bulbs are underneath and shine in your eyes as you sit at the table. Ever since I started getting headaches with this pregnancy, this has bothered me considerably more.
I talked to Handsome Hero, and he agreed to let me replace the chandelier. I went to ReStore and found the chandelier below for $15.
I got five colors of paint to choose from.
I chose these colors with the fabric from the kitchen pendant light in mind. I immediately eliminated the navy and orange from consideration {one too dark, one too bright}. The red was a bit much, so it was between the marigold yellow and apple green. I decided on the green for a few hours, but then realized that the yellow was more suited to the space. I was hesitant to choose the yellow because I've chosen it a lot recently, but if you were to visit my house, you wouldn't see the yellow as overpowering.
We hung the chandelier from the garage door opener, taped off or removed the parts we didn't want to paint,
{these are the piece we did want to paint but that were removable}
and began to paint it in very light coats. I did two light coats of primer first.
Then came four coats of paint. I must say, I was nervous the whole time that the color wouldn't work.
Handsome Hero hung it last night. It is easier than you would think to change out a light fixture. At least, Handsome Hero makes it look easy.
When it was hung, it looked like this. It was pretty lopsided. We unscrewed the bottom and tightened the arms and that took care of it, thankfully! It would have been a bitter disappointment, because I hadn't noticed that one of the arms was so loose before it was hung at eye level {at ReStore it was sitting on a shelf, and when I was painting it it was only two feet from the ground}.
After a bulb change and a very simple chandelier chain cover, it is done! If I may quote Handsome Hero:
Beth, in the future when you're doing projects like these, do you think you could put one
bulb in the socket and try it before opening all three
packages, so that if you, say, get sixty watt bulbs instead of twenty-five, and they are blinding to the point that you can't even look at the chandelier, you've only wasted one package of bulbs? Pretty please with a cherry on top?
That may have been a slight paraphrase. Real men don't say pretty please.
I am absolutely in love with the results.
In LOVE, I tell you!!!!!
I think it is a great addition to the kitchen area, noticeable, but not distracting.
Yet another angle, because I'm that proud of it.
Here's the view if you were entering our house. Look at those pretty round lights! I'm so glad I did those instead of the flame-style ones.
Well, I guess that's one more thing checked off the bucket list. What do you think?
For those wondering:
We are storing the old chandelier in the basement in case we move. I fully realize that a painted chandelier can be polarizing.
The chain cover was made using
this tutorial. Very simple! It took me about half an hour.
When I changed wattage, I also changed to opaque bulbs instead of clear because I thought that they would diffuse the light better, and I think they do. I really like them.
So there you have it. Definitely a contender for favorite house project in my mind.
