REDO: Shabby Chandelier

Vintage Charm

Way last year, I was on a hunt for a chandelier. I wasn't sure what I wanted, until I saw this OLD one at the Elkhorn FleaMarket in Wisconsin. My budget was scant at the time, so I passed and then contacted the seller online and purchased it later.

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Jeanine's booth is called, ChiPPy-SHaBBy

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 I loved all her things, here is the original post about the Elkhorn Fleamarket.

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Hubby is a genius and made it into a fixed light for the bedroom---but before---I HAD to adust the color with a REDO.

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When I got the fixture home---it was not only chippy, shabby, but filthy and also very, very yellow. Not pale yellow but electric 1970's yellow. First I stuffed the candle sconces with toweling and sprayed the whole thing with degreaser...and scrubbed.

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After multiple scrubbings with a bottle brush, scrubbies, and elbow grease...I hung it upside down over the sink for three days to dry out. I went on the statement from Jeanine...that it worked.

Results---it was even brighter yellow. And some of the dirt was really what had been a 'gold' paint which had tarnished to simply dirty looking.

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Here is a good example of the tarnished gold that is more of a dead, yugghy gray green
If it werent' for the yellow, and the tarnish that looked like dirt, I could have lived with this just as is. But the bedroom was looking so NEW and pristine---I needed to find a middle ground.

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Taking acrylic craft enamel paint in white and water, I daubed all the ugliest areas with a thin white finish of white

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 I left all the rusty stems...but simply freshened the flowers, sconces shafts and the petal candle holders.

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Here you can see how thin the coating is. Enamel paints tend to need three coats to get a perfect finish, so this was only one thin daubed on layer. This took some time, and lots of turning and changing angles to cover every surface.

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Now to mask the yellow on the leaves.  I loved the style of the finish---just not the color...a combo of briliant yellow, brown, and greens. 

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I started a plan of working on the easiest accessible leaves so if it didnt' work, I could scrub it off.

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The plan---to use three acrylic enamel greens: a chromium (dull), a bright lime and a grass green. I used paint from my stash, I store my paints upside down, so they last forever. (Think GREEN make it last.)

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Here's my palette, a plastic plate which I will reuse for other projects, with white enamel added. White adds opacity to the brighter enamel greens which I was afraid would be too transparent to cover the yellows.

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Here is the palette half-way through the project. I grabbed a little of each color with my brushes to mimic the original freestyle paint.

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Where the leaves were textured, I wiped excess paint off, to preserve the original spirit of the chandy.
I also used a damp sponge brush where it was difficult to get my hands in.

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 So many surfaces to paint. Bits of yellow showing through, but no where near as bright.

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As the paints began to dry darker (always keep that in mind when doing a project), the chandy began to look under control color-wise. I left edges rusty where possible and on the leave stems the original finish.

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 The last touches were watered down green dry brushed into the centers of the flowers.

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I thought of beautiful white geraniums centers with green blush. The touches are very subtle, but helped to tie the fixture parts together.

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Here it is installed. What a perfect spot for it and hubby didnt' have to crawl up into the attic to do new wiring. The chandy is on a dimmer.

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I do have built in electricity in the furniture as well as a desk lamp under the first shelf. But the lighting is not as dreamy as having a chandy.

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 The blue changes so with the lighting, this is bulbs on full with the dimmer switch.

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On at halfway here.

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 Halfway with night setting on my camera...love this!

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Approximate DIY costs on My OLD REDO chandelier.

Price: $79.00
4 new cardboard socket covers: $3.00
I bleached the plastic covers and brought them back to sorta white. $0 =
Paint: $0 from my stash otherwise, 4 colors at $2.50 each
Plastic base fitting-specialized to accept any fixture:@$10.00
Ceiling rossette (to cover old holes) $10.95

Total: @ $103.00
under my $150.00 budget for this item.


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All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless noted.  I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions of products or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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