A New Year's Transformation!

Did you make any New Year's Resolutions this year?  Every year, I usually have a few in mind that I would like to accomplish before the year ends, and I even write them down so that I can reference them throughout the year to see if I am indeed doing just that.

Well, not this year.  I haven't even thought about one New Year's Resolution yet.  Maybe because there is a lot that I need to accomplish so I am just procrastinating!  Maybe because I have been on a serious holiday break (almost 2 weeks!) and I am not quite ready to face reality yet!

My $6.99 find!

There is one goal that I have accomplished (finally) and I am happy to say I am quite proud of it.  I had purchased a chandelier some time back (a great value for $6.99!) with the hopes of re-doing this and having it hang proudly in my dining room by the time all of my Christmas guests arrived. Sadly, Christmas came and went with the same ugly dome light and no lovely chandelier.

I then set my sights on having this light finished by New Year's Eve.   I have to admit, painting the chandelier was quite the feat.  The brushed silver finish was hard to get covered correctly and there were tons of creases and crevices to paint!  Every time I thought I had every speck covered, another sliver of the ugly metallic color would show through and I would have to spread on another coat.  I was starting to second guess how great of a "steal" this chandelier was!

It finally started coming together.  I had to purchase some new sleeves for the lights, which I covered in a burlap material that was actually part of an old coffee sack.  I also covered the chain in the same material (I was not even going to attempt to paint the chain!).



Finally, after nearly 3 coats of paint, I felt I had adequate coverage and I used my Annie Sloan Dark Wax to darken and age the color as well as give it a more antiqued look.



I added in a little bit of gold leafing in some of the creases.  Not much, I just wanted to give it a hint of color.



I purchased a huge tin of buttons some while back, and I have been looking for ways to incorporate them in some of my projects, so I decided to dangle some from the outer arms.  I waxed these and gold leafed a few to match the color and style of the chandelier as well.

The finished project was done, hung and actually lit up (can you believe I didn't test it out before I finished it-what faith I had in a $6.99 light!) by New Year's Day.  Yeah!!

It looks so much better in our dining room then our no-personality, builder-model dome light.  It adds great ambiance, especially when dimly-lit!

It was a bummer that we couldn't have enjoyed our holiday meals under this new addition, but I am excited because I now have an excuse for another get together so I can show it off!


Happy New Year and Sweet Crafting!
DeeDee