Chandelier Makeover

     When I found out I was having a girl, I knew I wanted to add a little "bling" to the room with a mini-chandelier. The one I really liked was from Pottery Barn, and retails for $138.

     I knew that I didn't want to spend that much money on a new light fixture, especially since we had two other chandeliers hanging from the ceilings of our office and spare bedroom (don't ask my why!?) The only problem was - they were ugly, and brass.

     I decided to make over the smaller chandelier we had in our office for the lighting fixture in the nursery because I knew I also wanted a paper lantern mobile and I didn't want too much going on in the room. So, before, we had a VERY old ceiling fan in the nursery that looked like this:

    The chandelier began its  journey looking like so:

    One hot summer day I enlisted the help of Mom & Dad to spray paint the chandelier. I used a Rust-Oleum Universal Paint & Primer. I originally wanted the color of the chandelier to be a pearly white, so I chose the "Pearl Mist" color.

     We spray painted by hanging the chandelier from a tree branch outside. The spray paint turned out to be more of an incandescent color than I was expecting, so some of the brass finish underneath showed through slightly. In the end, I actually liked the color better than if it had just been a glittery white. It has a pewter look to it, which is nice, and ties in with the other hardware in the room. 

      

   Finally, I bought three packs of crystal beads from the craft store and used wire and hot glue to attach the beads to the chandelier.

     I debated with putting shades over the bulbs, but right now, I like it the way it is, especially since the hubby installed a dimmer, so now we can make the lighting as bright or dim as we like, which looks great with the reflection of the crystals.

    I think it's super cute for such an affordable make over project. My only wish is that it had a longer chain so it would hang lower on the ceiling, but there was nothing we could do to remedy this problem. I definitely am looking forward to re-doing the other chandelier. With a little spray paint, it is so easy!