Chandelier!

Is it obvious what this is? Whatever it is, its gorgeous. It made me so happy, I squealed and clapped.

I'll give you three clues:

1. It used to be really dirty and lived on a basement floor.

2. Now it's shiny and sparkly.

3. It used to belong to Carla and now she is going to regret giving it away.

Its a chadelier, silly.

For months I have been on the hunt for a cheap, old chandelier that needed fixing up. I envisioned a beautiful chandelier, with crystals, hanging from our bedroom ceiling.

This thing is ugly. I was getting sick of looking at it. My thought was, If I can't have a fan (because TC hates fans) then I'll show him and get a chandelier. Ha!

My plan was simple; take the chandelier apart, clean it, paint it and put it back together. So, I started by removing the crystals (I use the term crystal very loosely). Fortunately, they were only attached by little hooks so they popped right off.

I counted them, checked them for any breakage and took photos so I would know how to but them back together.

Then I cleaned them with a bit of warm water and soap. Easy.

I also took the candle sleeves off. They are pretty flimsy things and came right off. I was actually impressed that they were still intact. I didn't know what to do with them though. Do you paint them? Buy new colored ones? I wasn't sure. A quick trip into the wide world of DIY Blogs and I realized that most people paint them the new color of the fixture.

Next, I started in on the cleaning. As I cleaned I contemplated exactly what color was this new chandelier going to be....bronze? silver? white? black?

I kept cleaning through the inches of dust and decided to go for silver. After popping my head in our bedroom I realized that anything dark would have been too much. And white just wasn't the look I was going for.

Once the chandelier was clean I headed to Home Depot for some paint. A very wise old blog lady said that primer was a must when working with metal. Who am I to argue? I also ended up settling on an Aluminum paint for the final color. I was hoping for Pewter but didn't have any luck. Plus, I figured if I didn't like it I could always re-paint.





Before painting, we had to do a couple of things. Decide what to paint -- just the metal? the glass cups? the glass ball? the chain? I went with just the metal and the chain.

Then we had to tape off all the important parts, like the glass and the wiring. Actually, I asked The Canadian to put aluminum foil over it (like the DIY blogs suggested) but he decided to use painters tape instead. No harm, just makes for a longer removal process.

Finally, The Canadian rigged it up to the ceiling so it would be easier to apply an even coat. He's a smart one, I tell ya.





So, I sprayed on the primer. We put up cardboard behind it in attempt to keep the overspray to a minimum.





Then I primed the candle sleeves too. Pretty genius to string them along a dowel, right?





It was a little damp outside, and I have no patience, so we took a hairdryer to it in hopes of speeding things up. It's not really fun watching paint dry.





The primer dried fast. Like within 30 minutes. So, I went ahead and busted out my precious Aluminum paint.

This wasn't quite as easy as the primer. It's really thick, for one. It drips too. And its shiny so it plays tricks on your eyes and is hard to tell where you've sprayed.  BUT, it was looking good.





Don't forget the candle sleeves! They need love too.





Hello, I'm the Tin Man. Is it Halloween yet?





After a few hours the paint was still really sticky. It was raining outside so we decided to bring it inside to help it dry. This morning it was still tacky. But I got impatient and put the crystals back on anyway. I couldn't help myself. Just as I was beginning to think that it would never dry, it did. A full 24 hours later. Oye.

All I wanted to do was hang the damn thing, but I had to wait for The Canadian to get home.





The first thing he did was shorten the chain. The pliers messed up the paint a bit but not enough to make me go back and touch it up. Who looks that closely at the ceiling anyway? Please don't.

Then I was really helpful as I took his picture while he struggled to hang it above his head.


Note to self: next time mark which wire is which to avoid electrocution.







Oh my stars, I love it. I just love it.







I am in love with a light. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my whole life.

If you need me, I'll be laying on my bed staring at my beautiful chandelier.

Thanks Carla!!!