If you ever had the luxury of living in the 80's, you've probably
seen... or had, a lovely geometric chandelier, in brass, with tinted,
beveled glass. I know I did. Just when I thought that natural
selection had taken care of all of the aforementioned lighting
fixtures... The previous owner of my house had so generously preserved
the last of the 80's dynasty. This chandelier owes it's life to an
issue of "House Beautiful" magazine.
Just as it was headed to the local
donation center, I happened across a spread in the magazine that showed
a living room with a beautiful fixture in wrought iron, with... the
same shape, just no beveled glass; this one was $1300. I promptly
pardoned the chandelier from death row with the hope of re-purposing it
in my dining room. I broke the tinted glass out of the frame. When I
was through with that therapeutic process, I taped off the sockets and
sprayed the whole thing in a satin finish, fiery orange. In order to
fit the fixture in my dining room I had to add a length of cord and
chain. Once the fixture was installed, I wrapped a natural burlap
ribbon around the cord to hide the mismatched cord and chain, from the
extension process. To remedy the issue of 8 blaring light bulbs, blue
burlap ribbon was affixed in a band around the chandelier, creating a
shade.
Total project time:... about 3 hours.
Total cost.:.. free ninety
nine!!! Well, I spent $15 on paint, hardware, ribbon and light bulbs
(the light bulb were the most expensive part).
