More Metal Magic--A Chandelier Redo

Marcia's paint treatment of her bathroom fixtures is what inspired us to start a blog. She loves to paint, and she is very adventurous when it comes to trying something new. Me? Not so much. But we both love making the best of what we've got without spending a lot of money. So I thought I'd share my own metal magic with you. I painted the chandelier in my dining room a few years ago as part of a larger dining room makeover. (That's why the before pictures are from the pre-sale walkthough of our house. My husband and I used to constantly get halfway through a project and say, "We should have taken some before pictures.")

Here's what the dining room and shiny gold chandelier looked like before. Sorry its head is chopped off.

Now, the people who built and owned our house for almost 20 years took excellent care of it, but they hadn't done a ton of recent redecorating or updating. We wanted something fresh and urban farmhouse. The solution was a little paint and a chair rail installation.  

But our favorite part of this makeover, by far, was the chandelier (which was also the cheapest project). 

For weeks, everyone commented on the new chandelier. Nope, I told them, same old light fixture--just given new life with a little spray paint. We took the fixture down, cleaned it, taped off the places where light bulbs are screwed in, hung it from a beam in our unfinished basement, and sprayed away. We used Rustoleum Universal Metallic paint, the kind that has the trigger that allows you to spray at any angle. The first coat we applied was a matte copper color. Then we applied two coats of oil rubbed bronze paint. In a few places, you can see a little hint of coppery glow, which looks really cool. 

Now, Marcia has convinced me to paint a ceiling fan in my bedroom--which can't be done with spray paint because it will ruin the motor. She used a brush on her bathroom fixtures (yes, a brush!), so maybe I'll give it a try soon too.