A New light fixture

The new and improved

The light fixtures have been my least favorite part of this house.  Well, that and storage space issues, orange countertops, and a constant battle to keep my son from scratching the hardwood floors. The blobfish in the dining room, the bare lightbulb in the stairwell, the heat producing spotlight in the kitchen, and the extremely feminine chandelier in the bedroom (ooh la la) have had me coveting everything restoration hardware and schoolhouse electric.

It used to have even more dangly sparkly things, but I took them off and cant find them anymore.

While this little switcheroo is neither of those brands (think menards with grammatical errors on the instructions), I'm pretty happy about how it turned out.

While making a spontaneous trip through Menards lighting department (what? you don't do that?) I spotted this little beauty on clearance.  $35 is a price I can live with!  The shiny chrome, I could not live with.  So I picked up a bottle of rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint as well.

 

All the little screws I removed to pop off the top and bottom rings

You can see the shiny chrome underside here, and the oil rubbed bronzed goodness next to it

The inner workings of the light are protected in the bag, the cord is (mistakenly) wrapped with blue painters tape

All  had to do was unscrew the metal top and bottom from the thick shade.  About 40 tiny screws and cramping fingers was all it took to pop off the top and bottom.  I also put the bulb end of the cord kit in a plastic bag and covered the cord with painters tape to protect it from overspray.  I wouldn't recommend the painters tape, at least not in hot and humid weather, because it made the cord sticky.  A little elbow grease and a lot of goo gone fixed it right up though.
I did couple of super light coats of spray paint on the top and bottom of the fixture, the ceiling part of the cord kit, and the tiny round screws that hold it in place. Let me tell you, I am an oil rubbed bronze convert.  Dillon, hide the children, I'm about to paint all the things!

Putting the shade back together was very easy, and we were finally able to remove the cream white chandelier (ooh la la) and put this guy up.  I think my favorite thing is that Dillon won't hit it when he puts his shirts on anymore.  Second favorite is that walking into the bedroom feels so much more open and large without a big swoopy chandelier (ooh la la) in your face.

The chandelier will be heading into a friends house for her daughters room and I'm delighted to have one checked off of the lights-to-replace list.