Light Fixtures

Oh, how I am tempted to buy like 20 new light fixtures to replace the not so nice ones in every room of our home.  I have been so good!  I haven’t even bought one yet…..OK you caught me.  I bought two but they were cheap, used ones.  So that doesn't count. I bought one for the chandelier I did for Adelaide’s room. "From the Chandelierrr" And then, this beauty that I picked up from Habitat for Humanity for $15.

Have you all been to Habitat for Humanity?  Home owners dream store.  Not to mention shopping there is for a good cause.

To my husband-“Christian I am so excited about my new light fixture!  I am going to make it look nice!  When I do where should we put it?”

Husband- “Hmmm, I say we put it in the garage.”  Along with his “Why in the world did you buy this ugly thing?”  look. 

I love him.  

The garage?!  I am on a mission to tackle all the ugly fixtures! 

Which to choose?  In the kitchen and living room we had….well…for lack of a better term “boob” lights.  I am sure there is a better name for them but I don’t know what it is.  And, well, it’s kind of funny to call them “boob” lights.  My mother would be appalled!  Sorry mom!  I did not make up calling them “boob” lights, nor was I the person who designed them to look that way! 

My mother actually proofs these blog posts for me so I am looking forward to getting in trouble for my profanity.  :) 

You know…

These actually don’t look awful.  Just not my style and they are strange on our angled ceiling.

Here we have a saggy….you know what….in our entry….I don’t hate it.  It is just not my style.  It might be my style in 40 years.  Note to self, hang on to this because I might like it when I am older.

I sanded and wiped up the fixture.  At this point, I hadn't decided if I wanted to keep the glass in it or not.  I decided to keep it in and decide later. I taped up the glass before I sprayed.  I sprayed it down with Rust-oleum.  I know I am full of surprises.  I love my Rust-oleum.  They should totally cut me a check for how much I recommend them to people.  

This fixture actually gave me a little bit of trouble.  I realized that after spraying it twice that the glass blocked some of the brassy color.  I ended up taking out the glass and spraying it down again.  I would have done this instead of taping had I realized the glass came out so easy!

I decided to leave the glass out since the glass had a green hue on the edges that aged it a bit.  I did have to convince the husband that lanterns without glass are stylish these days. Oh yes, they are.

We are both happy with it now.

For those who have been reading my other posts, here's a quick side note.  I, officially, have painted TWO rooms’ ceilings white! I did a bathroom and baby’s room. Hallelujah.  Killing the beige ceilings one room at a  time.  So this beige ceiling will be much nicer by the end of the week.

A few days after this lantern was hung, my husband found another one in our attic!  The previous owners left some random stuff up there.  We also found some bows and arrows.  I am going to have to take up archery now.  Darn.  Katniss who? Here comes Erica. :) Oh yes.

Being that this fixture was very similar to the one in the kitchen, I knew that I wanted it a little different.  I searched Pinterest for ideas and surprisingly, did not find anything that I loved. 

Randomly, when I wasn't even thinking about my light fixture, I started thinking about how I really like the look of twine.  I have a little vase wrapped in twine and I was trying to figure out why something so simple could make things so pretty.  Light bulb went off.  Ba dum chi.

I went to a craft store first and bought some rope and a roll of twine.  The twine was almost $7 and the rope $3. After that, I had to make a stop at Walmart where I happened upon twine for a dollar something.  It was the same size.  Needless to say, I bought that and returned the expensive one.

When I got home I got out my hot glue gun and started attaching the rope and twine. 

Here is how it looked at first.

As my husband was hanging this for me and I was, I don’t know probably painting something, I hear an “Oh no!”

He sure does not like to disappoint me, but proceeds to tell me that this is a huge fire hazard.  (Heart sinks)  I did not even think about the fact that this could catch on fire!  The lights were right up against the twine.

I say, “Maybe it’s not flammable!” Wishfully thinking, as I grab a piece of twine and light it on fire.  It was flammable.  So, I had to rearrange things a bit.  I actually like the new look better.  And, I am glad my house won’t burn down.  :)

Once again, this will look cooler once my ceilings are white, but I love this one!!

Moral of the Story

  Light fixtures are awesome.  Once again, I believe that you can make over any fixture.  I might even make over the “boob” lights into little chandeliers or something.  Who knows?  Since, I did buy the one fixture for $15, these two fixtures cost $22 total. This is a high estimate because I actually didn't actually need to buy the Rust-oleum since I had some left from other projects.  Also, beware of fire hazards when making a fixture over. 

Thanks for reading!

Erica