About two weeks ago, I showed you all how our dining room looked once we got everything moved in, unpacked and situated. Then I showed you a close-up of our wonderful dining room chandelier.
Then you guys told me that you have the same one or your aunt had it way back when, and I discovered that too many of these things exist. In fact, my mom thinks her mom had one! But that’s beside the point.
I tried to fix our chandelier to work for us for the next year in the cheapest way possible. With some acrylic from Hobby Lobby and spray paint, I cut panels to hang on each hook since I don’t want to mess with the wiring to get the top ring off.
It looked ok, not great, but better. Then I turned the light on.
And it looked awful. I guess when you spray paint plastic and aren’t very even it doesn’t look good when light shines through. And I’m not sure more coats would help, I think it would just make the splotches darker. Let’s look at some before and afters.
And another angle.
And the close-ups.
Not only can you see splotches, but there are also some dots where the spray paint dripped and the light bulbs are pretty obvious. And the panels turn because they are lighter than the original glass panels and it looks even worse.
We’ve lived with my version of the chandelier for about a week now. I actually hate it a little more each day. Some things that bother me about it are:
- It reminds me of a circus tent. I think when I was planning it out, horizontal stripes were actually what I should have been after.
- Nothing in our dining room matches style-wise. If we had modern or geometric curtain panels and our table wasn’t country cottage (which will hopefully change before we move), I think it would work better. But even with those things, I’m sure I would still hate it.
- When I text a picture to Ryan, he said “I need to see it in person.” Then he was nice enough not to tell me how much he hated it, because I think he secretly knew I despised it too!
We will keep it up until I find a new solution because the glass panels are already packed away for when we move out. I guess I will have to go the drum shade route, via this tutorial (thanks for the rec Celia!), I just hope I don’t have to remove that top ring, because I really don’t want to think about how screwed up the wiring in this house is!
There’s only so much you can do in a rental! If you hadn’t tried it (and learned from your mistakes) you’d constantly be wondering how that project may have turned out!
Catherine recently posted..Home To Do
Haha… The fail is still better than the before! I don’t see circus tent… It would need to be red and white… But perhaps a prison or something…? LoL!!!
I’m so sorry but I laughed so much looking at your pics. Hey, at least you gave it a shot. I could totally see what you were going for, then when you mentioned circus it just turned hilarious.
Kudos for trying!
Tatum recently posted..Yard Sale-Goodwill Finds
We have that light. Three of them actually, as they came with the house. You can take the pronged part off by taking apart the light. Just rethread the wire through the lamp. I know nothing of electric items and I did it. Then, you have the traditional light part left. Spray paint, add crystals, or cover it with a drum shad. There are a ton of possibilities once you remove those prongs.