Matt and I decided a cost effective way to replace two
very blah chandeliers in our house was to buy used ones and Up-Cycle them. To me up-cycling is when you take something that is already in good condition,
usually dated, and make it current again. When you give something that last lil umph to push it over the edge and renew it’s life again.
usually dated, and make it current again. When you give something that last lil umph to push it over the edge and renew it’s life again.
That is exactly what we did with the 90’s chandeliers we picked up at
The Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Cary, NC.
The Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Cary, NC.
Low and behold they were having a BOGO sale on all brass light fixtures. You didn’t have to tell us twice and we quickly picked out two sizable ones and walked away paying $35.00 for both.
What a deal!
Our excitement was short lived as we started packing the car to head back to
TN and realized we had two options;
take one light and leave the other, or take both and leave Fenway.
We really missed Fenway while he was gone …
Only kidding, Fenway made the trip home with us and Matt’s super generous Mom and Step-dad drove the larger of the two fixures to TN a few weeks later. GO MOM!!!
Entrance Before Dining Before
Matt tied a rope from the top part of our deck to a tree so we could hang the chandeliers from the line and make it easier to paint them. It is important to prep the surface of your light before painting it by cleaning off any dust, finger prints …
After your light is clean you will want to put cotton inside the
candle tubes on the light to keep paint from getting inside the light socket. I prefer cotton over tape so that I can slide the tubes up and get even better coverage, plus the cotton helps hold the tubes in place and keeps them from slipping back down.
To keep the candle tubes from discoloring I primed them with a high heat spray paint intended for use on grills.
Better safe than sorry right?
There are a few different brands on the market but my favorite so far is the ACE hardware brand.
It dries well and does not run like other brands can.
Once the high heat paint was dry I spray painted the rest of the light with an Oil Rubbed Bronze finish paint by RustOleum. This stuff is absolutely amazing and looks so pretty in the sunlight.
My hat is off to whoever invented this stuff, it’s awesome!
We left both lights out on the line for a few hours (whatever the manufacturer recommends) and came back for a second and final touch up coat.
Once the dining room light was dry and cured Matt went ahead and hung it for me! I still had the light shades to re-cover but I couldn’t wait to see it up.
Since the light shades were black I painted them with a tan craft paint so that the black would not show through my fabric. It took two coats to get a decent coverage.
While the paint was drying on the shades I made a pattern out of a paper bag.
Once the pattern was cut out of the paper I was able to pin it to my
fabric and cut out my shade fabric.
I opted for the super sticky spray adhesive and attached the fabric to the shades.
Then it was time to figure out how to hang the LARGE entrance chandelier.
WARNING the following is not for the faint of heart!
Our entrance foyer is over 2 1/2 stories tall, it was obvious a ladder alone wasn’t going to cut it on this one. Matt was able to borrow a scaffolding from a friend (thank you Hopper).
We thought we were set, until Matt discovered that the
scaffolding was wider than the foyer opening.
So on to Plan B, use the first tier of scaffolding, plus a 10′ step ladder
that we borrowed from my father.
that we borrowed from my father.
It looked a little something like this – GAH!
I am so thankful my husband is not afraid of heights!
Sorry for the quality of pictures it was starting to get dark
Once he had all the wiring in place and ready to go, up the ladder he went.
At this point I was ready to throw up for him, but he was cool about it and didn’t mind one bit.
When Matt finished the wiring of the light and dusting of the ceiling
(hey why not he was already up there)
I was given the honor of flipping the light switch!
Success!!!
And then of course I made Matt smile and say Cheese!
Here is my view from the ground level- 🙂
This looks 1000 times better than the original light fixture that was not only covered in dust, it had a burnt out bulb and rust … I can only assume the rust is due to East TN humidity in the summer months.
I have shades for the entrance chandelier but am not sure if I will use them yet or not.
But it’s now or never and before that scaffolding comes down I better make up my mind … FAST!
Check out our Before & After photos!
Christa says
February 29, 2012 at 7:31 amYou've inspire me. I plan to upcycle a very similar light fixture that has been in my dining room for….well… a long time!
Jacque n Matt Knowlton says
February 29, 2012 at 12:17 pmThats awesome! You will have to send us before and after pictures, we would love to see them!
yosemitepam says
February 29, 2012 at 9:12 amWonderful job! It looks great! I vote no shades on the entrance…:-)
Jacque n Matt Knowlton says
February 29, 2012 at 12:18 pmI'm leaning that way, just one more thing to have to dust … and at that height it's not going to be me!
- Brittany aka Pretty Handy Girl says
March 2, 2012 at 9:21 amNICE JOB! Whoa, seeing your hubs up that high gave me a scare and I'm not afraid of heights either.
Thanks for sharing it with me. Off to share it on Twitter, etc.
Jacque n Matt Knowlton says
March 2, 2012 at 2:26 pmThank you so much we are so happy with them. I guess being a firefighter helps with his fear of heights … err lack of fear. Yesh!
Calypso In The Country says
March 4, 2012 at 2:14 pmWow! What a difference – and a money saver too! It's funny, I think we all had that before fixture in our foyers at one time or another!
-Shelley
Angie Ramirez says
March 4, 2012 at 5:25 pmAwesome transformation!!
Found you on TT & J! I would love for you to come by and link this and any other projects you have at my Create & Inspire Party! 🙂
http://www.littleinspiration.com/2012/03/crete-inspire-party-plus-top-5-features.html
Hope to see you there.. 😉
Regards,
Angie
Jacque n Matt Knowlton says
March 4, 2012 at 6:25 pmJust stopped in and added a few posts to yours page! Thanks for the invite :o)
-Jacque
Bronwyn says
March 5, 2012 at 7:55 amAwesome! What a dramatic change for both fixtures. I have had good luck with ReStore fixture makeovers too. Cheap and no one ever knows!
Jacque n Matt Knowlton says
March 27, 2012 at 1:19 pmI highly recommend checking them out on a regular basis. You never know what you are going to find!
KTS Grammy says
March 18, 2012 at 2:14 pmOh my! I almost had a panic attack just looking at that height on the monitor! LOL I am deathly afraid of heights. I continued on anyway and I'm glad I did because I got to see your beautiful, new chandeliers!
Jacque n Matt Knowlton says
March 27, 2012 at 1:19 pmHaha he is a very brave man. Then again if he was afraid of heights he wouldn't be very good at his job!.
Rachel {BubblyNatureCreations.com} says
March 28, 2012 at 5:16 amWow!!! That looks completely different!!! Love it!!! xoxo- Rachel
http://bubblynaturecreations.com/2012/03/rainbow-glitter-dot-eggs.html
Mrs. Jones from the Circus says
May 6, 2012 at 9:14 pmOh my! Great work. I love the entry chandy! And I think it looks great without the shades. So elegant up there. I clicked over from Southern Hospitality.
Gigi Maclean says
November 5, 2012 at 9:43 pmI followed your instructions to a tee and mine came out perfect. Thank you!
Jessica @ Dear Emmeline says
November 7, 2012 at 11:45 amlooks great! we just replaced our white ceiling fan in our master bedrrom’s vaulted ceiling with a similar fixture. It’s large and made or black iron/metal so we didn’t have to do anything to it!!! yay for $50 yard sale scores! but my husband looked similar up on the ladder hanging the fixture by himself!
Jessica @ Dear Emmeline recently posted..The building of a bed {queen bed frame plans}
Janna Perry says
March 23, 2014 at 12:28 amThis was a fantastic project and I used your idea for priming with the high heat paint. My chandelier turned out FANTASTIC!! I gave you the props on my blog. http://twocrafttables.blogspot.com/
Janna Perry recently posted..One man’s trash is THIS girl’s treasure!
Kristin says
May 24, 2014 at 6:14 amLove the light fixtures. But I’m LOVING the green paint color in the dining room. Dp you mind sharing the color and brand? I’m looking for a green, and yours is exactly the look I want! I’m SO excited to find out and get painting!
Jacque says
May 25, 2014 at 12:26 amOh no! You are probably going to hate me when I say this but unfortunately I have no clue what the color is! The previous owners painted it and they didn’t leave us any paint. I’m so sorry I can’t help you. 🙁
Gretchen says
September 2, 2014 at 9:56 amDo you mind telling me what COLOR high heat paint you used at first? I see it in white, black, almond and green? Thanks! Looking forward to doing this project!
Cathy parese says
January 1, 2015 at 11:16 amI have the EXACT same entryway AND chandelier!!!! I need scaffolding I guess. Can u rent that stuff??
Jacque says
January 2, 2015 at 12:06 pmI think you can at places like United Rentals. You may just want to call around and make sure that it’s not bigger than your entrance foyer!