Cheap Chic Chandelier

This is a chandelier I bought on craigslist for $15.  Fabulous, right?

It started out with an outdated, shiny brass finish, which I fixed using my favorite new tool my mom gave me for Christmas:

Spray Paint Trigger, originally uploaded by espeedy123.

It’s a Rust-Oleum spray paint trigger device. My mom knows how much I like to spray paint!

It works really well and makes painting much easier and more fun. The process feels more professional too, like you have a huge professional spray paint machine behind you.

Here’s the fixture pre-project:

The fixture painting process is pretty simple:

• Remove the candlestick sleeves,
• Tape off the socket and wiring,
• Hang it outside, and
• Spray to your heart’s content.

I primed first:

I then followed with a combination of bronze and gold “hammered” spray paints by Rust-Oleum. They are nice because they aren’t so flat. I also painted the little metal parts that go around the candlesticks flat black, just to mix it up.

There are plenty of expensive fixtures out there for inspiration, ones that I think are relatively easily mimicked:

Martha Stewart’s Jadeite Chandelier, which costs $1,000+ (doesn’t someone sell jadeite spray paint?!?!?)

An Ethan Allen Chandelier that inspired me. (I saw this one in the store and the finish is not super great on the real life $1,300 version!!)