Upcycling: Bright Ideas

Hello again blogosphere! I apologize for my inconsistent blogging, but we are knee deep in a home remodeling extravaganza!  Such is the topic of this blog...

Now I know this picture is a little small but bear with me. This brass light fixture originally came in my sister's house.  She was not a fan, despises brass colored lights to the infinite degree, and found a replacement light at IKEA to send this one packing.



So now that we are moving in to a house, which to give a little background is really old and historic but the inside looks like something you see on those shows where the people flip the house, this light suddenly came back on the radar.



My sister offered to bring up the light, and we started brainstorming on all the different things we could do to it to make it look like an IKEA light, without the IKEA price.


It turns out the same principles that apply to jewelry making...apply to light refinishing.

What We Used:
       Black Metallic Flake Paint (2 cans)
       Clear Glass Beads
       Silver Beads from my grandpa's jewelry he made for us that I have been upcycling
       Crystal beads in diamond type shapes
       Silver Wire
       Wildfire beading cord
        Jump rings of varying sizes


Step 1: My sister repainted the ugly brass a beautiful black.  This light has about 8 arms on it if that gives you an idea of size, and we really needed 2 cans of paint to do it.  We ended up using one regular black and one metallic flake black, but it still came out just fine.

Step 2: While she was painting, I made the little hang jewels for 3 different levels of the light.  Pictured here are the top jewels which include 2 small silver beads from grandpa's creations and some clear beads.  They are all attached with 24 gauge silver wire, which I actually would argue is far smarter to use on everything than the wildfire cord.  Turns out wire makes this project go a lot faster.

Day late and a wire short I suppose...

Here is the bottom bling.  This gives you an idea of what I was talking about with the diamond shaped guys, my sister found them at the craft store in the wedding department.

They aren't cheap, but look how cute it is... Or if you have a friend getting married con them into DIYing something and sticky finger a few...

HAH just kidding.

Regardless, the sentimental factor in this light is that the 2 gray beads and the center silver beads are ones that I got from my aunt who gave me a lot of jewelry to take apart and use in my mecca creations.

(For anyone who doesn't know, I call my lair the craft mecca.)

Step 3: Put the finishing touches (such as a spot of glue) on your jewels to make sure that the string won't break and they won't come off the light, and attach.  If you use wire you can for the most part avoid having to do a lot of this, but I would argue that a little E6000 glue never hurt any project.

It could be E600 glue...but THOUSAND sounds so much more intimidating.

You can find it at your favorite craft store, I get mine in the jewelry section.


Before, I wouldn't have even paid $5 for that brass looking light at a yard sale.  Now, I feel like we paid $100 for it at IKEA or something.  We have decided that if anything could be gothic chic, it's this light. 

I think I may start my own light flipping business, and give ugly lights a second chance at life...