September Spray Paint Projects

I am loving this fall weather. When I first began spray painting things when we moved in in July, the spray paint acted very odd. The humidity was making it globby and frustrating. This fall weather is perfect for spray painting and I got out earlier this week to get some projects done. First on my list was my new chandelier I picked up in Lansing, MI at a flea market (check out the pictures here). I also found some light switch covers at that same flea market. The third thing I spray painted was (yet another) chandelier - this time one that uses candles instead of electricity. Here are some before shots:

I learned from one of my favorite blogs, Young House Love, to stuff the light bulb sockets with paper towel before spray painting it. When I spray painted my pink chandelier I used painters tape and actually took the white tubes off, left them white, and they are on my pink chandelier white right now. This new chandelier I wanted those tubes to blend in, so I kept them on and painted them right along with the rest of the chandelier.

Just like the pink chandelier I hung the new chandelier on a shepards hook to paint it. This process works well except that no one will ever see my chandelier from the top, which is the angle I painted it from when hanging. So I did end up having to turn it over (this was easier with the last one because there was a hook on the bottom and the top - trickier this time) to get at it from all angles. I chose my trusty ORB (Oil Rubbed Bronze) spray paint for the job because the chandelier can be seen from my bedroom (black accents) and the living room (brown accents) so I wanted a nice in between color.  More pictures of the finished project at the bottom of this post.

The light switch cover project was a fun one too. Here is the light switch cover situation before:

Add some spray painted ornate flea market finds and...

I am on the lookout for some new inserts for the actual switches in white. I think it adds a little something to the wall though. I put the cover on the switch in my living room on the wall I intend to make a gallery wall for photos eventually.

Here is the candle chandelier I was working on. It was originally brown, not bad, but not right for my bedroom. This was actually a new purchase, not a flea market or second hand find. It was still cheap though, only $9. Sounds kind of steep actually considering my two electric chandeliers were $4 and $10 each.

Hanging the chandelier was the next challenge after everything dried. This is one of those projects that should not take long, but manages to take about 5 times longer than expected. Getting the old light down was a breeze. Here is a shot of what we were working with before. Pretty average.

So I tore it down and this is what it looked like underneath.

Anyway, there are two wires that come out of the ceiling, one white, one black. The wires on my chandelier were both brown... how would I know which to connect to which? Call my dad and ask of course! Turns out it doesn't really matter. If you can tell that one is ribbed and one is not, that is one way to tell. Otherwise you can just hook them up to either. My dad explained to me like this: You know how when you plug something into the wall (like a hair straightener) sometimes one prong is bigger than the other and has to fit in the right size hole? Sometimes the prongs are the same size and it doesn't matter. Ceiling lighting works the same way. Doesn't matter which goes where, but if you can tell, then use the right one. Long story short we just hooked them up willy nilly to each other.
Side note here: Make sure you cut off all power to the light before you start messing with the wires!

Here is where the project turned lengthy. We have pretty average height ceilings in most of our house (besides the skylight rooms) and chandeliers are for the most part hung in taller ceilinged areas. We had to take quite a few links out of my pink chandelier but it hangs over a table and did not need to necessarily be above everyone's heads.

This new chandelier will be hanging in the entry way and definitely needed to be above everyone's heads. Even my extra tall brother in-law. There is an up side to this... I always have extra chain lengths laying around for other projects - like the chandelier for my bedroom mentioned earlier in this post. We started with 4 links, got the whole thing up there and I decided it needed to be shorter. So down it came and we tried again with only two links this time. Two was pretty perfect. Here is how the beauty looks now:

I am so happy with the way it turned out. The ORB finish makes it look so elegant. I even decided not to add any crystals to it to bling it up for fear it would look any less perfect. I can't wait to put some green garland around it at Christmas time. It makes me so happy! :-)

Here's the finished (sans candles) bedroom candle chandelier project (note the chain - this was leftover from the hallway chandelier):

How many more chandeliers do you think I can reasonably put in my house? We are up to 3 now... I am thinking the guest bath could use one and there is an ugly bug filled light outside my front door that needs something. Maybe not a chandelier but definitely a lantern of some kind.