From brass to bling!

12 years ago

I wanted to add a new light fixture to my craft room/office and I stumbled upon one at our Habitat ReStore. What sold me on it was the seeded glass shades, but the ugly yellow brass was hurting my eyes. My husband thought I was nuts for buying it, but I saw it's potential.

Unfortunately, in my excitement, I forgot to take a before photo, but you can imagine the '90's bright yellow brass tone.

A coat of aged copper, a coat of chrome and a smattering of flat black spray paint and a collection of crystals from my bling jar and it's now just what I wanted.

Apparently the electrician who came to install it (before the addition of the crystals) was admiring it and the crystals I had planned for it. I guess he was admiring my whole (messy) craft room. Made me smile! Going to send him this pic of the finished product.

From November 7, 2011

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Comments (13)

katlan
12 years ago
That's gorgeous!
hhireno
12 years ago
Ooo, nicely done. You definitely should send the pic to the electrician so he can see the finished project.

I heard they will be opening a Restore near me. I can't wait to give them all sorts of odds & ends that have been accumulating around here after projects. And I can't wait to see what 'new' thing I can bring home.
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gmp3
12 years ago
Very pretty! How do you attach the crystals? Could we see a close up?
katrina_ellen
12 years ago
I love stuff like this, it looks great and its one of a kind. It has a more modern style so you have just the right amount of bling without over-doing.
andreadeg
12 years ago
This is fabulous! I have a brass fireplace insert that I'd like to convert to a bronze look. Can you explain the process that you followed and the specific products that you used?
bostonpam
12 years ago
It looks fantastic! I want detailed directions too. I have a brass lamp that needs to be updated.
birdgardner
12 years ago
Great job!

I do love spray paint on metal. In our master bedroom I wanted ORB curtain rods with leaf finials from Pottery Barn - alas, too expensive. Found some cheap, and cheap-looking, brass curtain rods with leaf finials from Walmart or Target. A can of bronze spray paint applied with a light hand to let a wee bit of brass glimmer through - voila! Twelve years old and still looking good.

And we got a few elf-warrior Halloween costumes out of that can, too.
anele_gw
12 years ago
Love it! I am sitting right under my own chandelier, eyeing it as a possibility for this change!
dawnp
12 years ago
Great job Pesky!
neetsiepie
Original Author
12 years ago
Well thank you everyone! I am a spray paint fan, so everything I did was with that. First primer, any color, but I used gray. Once dried it was coated with a bronze/copper metallic paint. After that dried, I didn't like it, so I hit it with some chrome spray paint. I stood back pretty far so it just gave a light enough coat to cover the copper, but let a lot show thru yet. While that was still wet, I stood back even further and lightly, very, very lightly went over with flat black. It's kind of fly speckled with the black.

It really has a tarnished silver finish, not the shiny chrome or bronze. I once did a plastic mirror like this too.

As for the crystals, I just used the metal hooks that come on them and looped it over the arms. I then added 7 of the round crystals per arm, for a total of 35 for the swag, connected the same way. I just ran a bit of wire thru the loop of the lower drops and viola. I considered adding more, but once I stepped back, I was pleased with the amount. Not too much. I think the seeded glass shades really set it off well. And to think, I paid only $15 for the fixture! Paid the electrician $90 to hook it up tho...but at least I have peace of mind that it's properly wired up after my failure to get it hooked up right!
cattknap
12 years ago
A great transformation! I love those Habitat for Humanity stores and they do have lots of brass chandeliers.
andreadeg
12 years ago
Pesky1- thanks for the instructions. Did you use regular spray paint, or auto paint to get the paint to stick to the chandelier. Also, did you sand first?

Thanks so much! This post will get saved in my favorites so when I'm ready for updating my fireplace I have this info handy!
franksmom_2010
12 years ago
The light looks great!

I'm jealous. My craft room has FOUR fluorescent strip lights. I'd love to replace them all some day, but the ceiling will need to be patched, and while we're at it, remove the popcorn, retexture, paint, etc., so it's low, low on the priority list.

Can we see more of your room? I'm gearing up to start on my craft room, and would love to see how you did yours. I'm still working out a plan for fabric storage. I've seen where some people use a bookshelf and fold fabric around carboard to make mini bolts, but some of my fabric pieces are large, and buying a cheap particleboard bookshelf just seems like a waste to me.