A Little "Light" on the Subject.

Today and yesterday I have been working on a little project on updating our bedroom lamps. Although I am grateful to have them, they have driven me crazy from the time we inherited them. However, new lamps weren't and still aren't in the budget. So what do I do? I find a way to make something old, look new, That's what! Besides I think it is fun.

When Dan and I moved up from Rexburg we inherited these lamps from Dan's Grandmother's house. At the time, we had hardly any furniture of our own. We ended up having to sell most of it when we moved, so we were happy to get them.

They sure weren't the prettiest things to me. I have never been a fan of brass, and I don't think I ever will be. Also the lamp shades were nothing to jump up and down about. Unless of course you were throwing a fit like me and decided to do something about it.

This is the before. Dust and all. Not very pretty is it?

I thought they still had some potential left, and that's where it all started. First I took the bulbs out and took the pieces apart. They were all screwed together by the center rod. It came apart pretty easily. Once the pieces were disconnected I had to undo the wiring. I marked all the joining wires with 1, 2, or 3 dots of craft paint first so that I would know which wires went together when it came time to reassemble everything.

I masked off all the wiring and light bulb openings. Then I took a can of my new favorite! (Oil Rubbed Bronze Rustoleum spray paint) and painted all the pieces. I saw lot of you other bloggers out there using this stuff and decided to give it a try. It is AWESOME STUFF! I love it!

Here's a close up of what the paint looks like. It is sooo much better in person though.

I let everything dry and then brought it back inside to reassemble. This is where things got iffy. I had a really hard time get it all back together. I did eventually get it to go back together, but not quite like it needs to be; it is still a little loose. And all that struggling scuffed up parts of the paint that I have to now go over it again with a second light coat.

For the second lamp though, I ended up just taking the glass pieces off and painted it all while it was still assembled.  Oh well... you live and learn.

The lamp shades were probably the part I disliked the most. They definitely needed to GO! I decided to try and salvage the shade part to recover with some white canvas fabric. The lines from the glue were still visible but it was looking much better than before.

After being almost done with the first one I couldn't wait to take a picture so here it is. Sorry about the lighting. It was dark outside and I didn't have time to fiddle with the camera settings. Also, excuse the messy table. That's a project for another day.

Here's a side by side comparison. Better, don't ya think?

My husband doesn't think it is an improvement and thinks I am crazy to have done it. He wasn't exactly fond of the previous look either but oh well... everyone is entitled to an opinion. But that's not keeping me from doing it. I like how it turned out. Don't you think it looks so much better? He does however like that the new shades make the room brighter. So I guess there is one good thing about the whole project right?

I tried to avoid it, but I did end up having to go and buy new lampshades.  Bummer.  I broke the second one trying to get the old crinkle stuff off of it. It was glued on better than the first and the old plastic underneath just shattered. Oh well. I will post a picture of the finished project with the new shades once the second one is finished.