Light fixture facelift

You know those house projects that seem to take......um, forever? Well, this light fixture update was definitely what I would consider a journey.


It started with a light fixture we inherited in our house when we moved in. To be honest, the light fixtures are way better than any I've ever inherited in a new or new-to-us house. Rubbed bronze and perfectly serviceable. Just nothing special. : ) You can see the edge of it in the below pic. Actually, the thing I disliked about it the most is that the bulbs and the shades hang down.

Although there are some beautiful light fixtures out there that cause me to drool, I have a perfectly functional light and there is no reason why I couldn't give a little update to mine.


I got to work removing the fixture so it could be painted. Also, since it was meant to hang over a table, the chain needed to be shortened.

After a few coats of brushed nickel spray paint and some links out of the chain, I rehung and connected the wiring back up. I picked up some bulbs that were smaller to fit the shade I had.

I had a shade from a lamp my mom gave me that I decided to spray paint a taupey, off-white color. I wanted the shade to hang upside down (with the small end on the bottom and big end up) to cover the bulb....my nemesis!!! Once it was painted, I had to figure out how to hang it. I decided to use some washers and attach them with hot glue. Then, I could use some thread to hang the shade.


Find some washers in my coffee can of random hardware....

Aha......got some.

The inside where I glued the washers..

And.....unfortunately, this was a FAIL. The shade is made of heavy paper and not at all light. I had to keep regluing the washers and finally I gave up the fight. There had to be a better way. At this point, I hit a wall. The shade, screwdriver and hardware sat on the cabinet in the room for two weeks or so.


Well, I finally got off my duff and finished it up. I decided to use a razor blade to make some tiny cuts right by the edge.

I strung it with some fishing line. You can see some gobs of hot glue left over from my other attempt.

I hung it up, evened it out and......success!

I added some chandelier crystals I bought at the hardware store.

I also added some beads....I spray painted those plastic colored beads, cut them to size and hung them on the fixture. You can barely see the fishing line in that spot.

SO glad to have this project done!

I am considering adding a dimmer to this switch, but I'll wait a while for when I need a project to do. : ) I'm super happy with how it turned out. Much better in the room. 

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