“..From the Chandelierrrr”

The title of this blog is a newer song reference, in case you are confused.  If you do not know this song then, do not worry, in my opinion you are not missing out.  It is one of those songs that will get stuck in your head all day!  Especially, when you are working on a chandelier!! Then you will absolutely feel the need to sing and it will drive you crazy.  And then, your son will start singing it at the time when it finally leaves your head and it will get stuck back up there yet again.

I knew right away, when my baby girl was finally going to have a room of her own, that I wanted to put a chandelier in it.  One wonderful thing about having a daughter for me is that all my hidden girly girlness can have an outlet.  I have never been much of a girly girl and still don’t like a lot of frill or bright colors but goodness, the enjoyment I get out of dressing up my little lady and making a girly room tells me that I am way more girly than I thought.

Here is the light that was there. 

Since I have, in case you couldn't tell, been trying to redo everything in our home that we have been in for only a month, I have had to make sure that I make every project as cheap as possible.  I had been looking online at chandeliers for Adelaide (sweet 10 month old daughter) since we started house hunting.  

I settled on a small basic one from IKEA http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20089464/ since I couldn't even find a reasonable one to make over.   This one was super simple but added the bit of bling that I wanted. When I finally decided to buy it, I went to the store and it was out of stock.  I continued to check online for two weeks to see if it was back in stock with no luck.

After that I started looking again.  I really couldn't justify dropping too much money on a chandelier, so I was mostly looking on local Facebook sale pages.  Finally, I gave up and posted on our local site asking if anyone had a simple chandelier that they would sell me.  Right away, one of my neighbors from when I was a kid messaged me that she had one.  Done. 

Here it is! 

I ordered two packs of acrylic chandelier crystals.  I was really surprised at how cheap these were on Amazon and how nice they looked! Tear Drop Crystals

I began by doing a light sanding all over the chandelier with just a piece of sandpaper. I used 140 grit but anything that will rough up the surface a bit will be fine.  Then, I wiped the whole thing down. I also, stuck a piece of painters tape over each “candlestick”.

I hung the chandelier on a hook on a shelf in my garage with a drop cloth hung behind it and draped below.   

I used this really cheap white spray paint.  It was around $3. (Just in case you do not read any further, I do not recommend this kind)

I sprayed and sprayed.  This was one  that you have to shake a lot and can’t tilt at all or it won’t spray.  I actually ended up using the whole can!  With Rust-oleum I am not even on my second can after doing a bunch of hardware, doorknobs and a light fixture.  

It did come out nice.  I let it sit for about a half hour before I began hanging the crystals. The crystals I used came apart by hand very easy.  They have metal rings between each crystal that you can just pull apart to attach however you wish. 

Now for the fun part!  I didn't realize switching out fixtures would be so easy.  It is really not as scary as I thought.  Thanks to my Dad who Facetimed with me through the process, I have changing light fixtures down!  Thanks Dad! With light fixtures, you don’t have to turn the breaker off.  As long as the light switch stays off you will not be in danger of getting shocked. An electrician might suggest otherwise.  I do not know, since I am not an electrician but I am still alive and so is my Dad who has changed a ton of fixtures in his life.  I suggest that you put tape over the switches if you are not the only one home. You definitely do not want someone flicking the light on while you are changing a fixture. 

                Once the switch is off, you can start taking the old fixture down.  Ceiling fans can be tricky because of how they are put together (not sure if this is with all fans). With this fan I had to take it all apart to get it down.  

As you can see above, I had to take all the blades off, the shade off and the motor off before I could get to where this connected to the ceiling. I might post a tutorial about how to switch out fixtures at a later time.

I found proof that the ceilings were once white.  Uhh.  This is still not a project for today.  Maybe next week I will paint them all white again…maybe. Seriously, if anyone is passionate about painting ceilings, I will let you paint mine!

This did make it so I had an awkward white spot on my ceiling.  Darn, I needed a ceiling medallion to cover it. J I grabbed one of these at Home Depot. Medallian.

I am very happy with how this came out.  Adelaide seems to like it too J

What I Would Do Different:

-I would use Rust-oleum.  The spray paint I used was definitely worth the cheap price I paid but not only is Rust-oleum easier to use, it also goes a lot further, works a lot better and is a very similar price! Rust-oleum ends up a lot cheaper if you have more than one project.

-If given the choice, I would have chosen a bit smaller of a chandelier. This one looks great but is a bit larger than I would have wanted for this space.  I actually think that if I colored it different it would look awesome in the master bedroom.  I might end up spraying it dark and putting a white shade around it and then putting it in the master.  Or putting a shade around it and keeping it in Adelaide's room.  Hmmm. We will see.  

In Conclusion:

Light fixtures are so much fun to make over.  I really think that you could make over or update almost any fixture out there!  It is cheap too!  I bought this chandelier for $20 and spent about $10 on supplies.  Not bad for $30! 

Thanks for reading!  Please feel free to comment or ask questions!

Erica