From Spain with Love

Most of the projects at the new house look so bad at the moment that I cringe every time I walk in the door. So this weekend after spending a long time gutting the kitchen, I decided to do a quick little project to act as a pick me up. A bright spot for the house. One pretty item; one thing completely done. Actually, I think this makes two items, our master bedroom ceiling is completed and the lighting/fan fixture has been hung. So that makes 2 things you can look at in the house and not see just plain awfulness. 

HA! Can you tell we are in the heart of the renovation? It's always been the hardest part. You've done a ton of work and it looks way worse than it did 2 months ago. Yep, we are there. Very, very... not fun. 

So I took a couple of hours and did a little project to brighten up our outlook. When we bought the house the dining room sported this massive chandelier. Very big, very dated, very not gonna be staying. My Mom mentioned to me that maybe I could rework the piece and that set me off on a Pinterest Expedition hunting for ideas. 

The chandelier was made in Spain and is very ornate. After I had bought the paint for it, I began wondering if the light would be too big for where I wanted it - our little girl's room. I knew I would not be keeping all the ornate dangly little glass pieces all over it (I can't think of the word for those at the moment so lets call them bangles). Even though I planned on removing alot of the bangles, I was still afraid the light would overpower the bedroom it was going in.

So I was really excited when I got all 92 of the little things detached from the light and see just how heavy and big they were making it. Without them it was just the perfect size! (Atleast I think it will be, we haven't hung it yet).

I hung the light up in the basement and used painters tape to tape off where the bulbs screw in. I spent a good 30 minutes just wiping down and cleaning the light. Let me just say, I am the world's worst about wanting to just jump in and paint, but my husband has finally got it through to me that the prep work is really where you win or lose with painting. So I pulled out my denatured alcohol again (seriously this stuff desolves grime and dust and gets all the oil off the paint surface with relatively little effort.)

I used Rustoleum's high gloss white spray paint and went to town. It went fairly quickly, even with the 4 coats I applied. With all the ornate crevices and dips, I decided to do extra coats for a more uniform look.

 I wanted something to brighten it up and give it a playful look so I took the little "candle" looking pieces off and sprayed them with Valspar's sea foam spray paint. I really liked the way the color turned out. Bright and it looks so good against the white of the chandelier.

All in all, this completed project took only about an hour and a half. And the satisfaction of having something cheerful and done is very encouraging.

Laney really liked her light. (How nice that she was color coordinated that day with it, huh?)  :)
Once we get the ceilings caulked and painted in her room and her walls painted and and and and lol - the light hung up in her room I will post again showing you her fancy chandelier in its' full glory.

After this picture was made I decided to add on about 18 of the little glass pieces. Just enough to add a little extra sparkle.

Sorry for blurry pictures. I really need to get my good camera out to document these projects, but somehow I never do. And my cell phone has started taking really poor pictures (might have something to do with the nice coat of Rustoleum spray paint that drifted onto it recently, ya think?)