An Oldie, But a Goodie.

Ahhh, one of my favorites. One of the greats, as far as those "Lizisms" that I was referring to go. If you follow along with me on Instagram, you might remember this one too. This particular project really pushed the envelope, and my husband's patience. Have an old #chandelier that desperately needs a #chandeliermakeover ? So did I.... So. Did. I.

The Project

The chandelier, clearly. When we bought our house, I loved the bones of it. I saw beyond the 90's "charm," and knew that there were many improvements to be made, but was excited about most of them. Most of them. This chandelier was one of those projects that I wanted to tackle the first time that I walked through the house.

Now don't get me wrong. The metallic Grecian look that it was originally sporting might be right up some people's alleys. It just wasn't up mine. And by "not up my alley," I mean that it was like down the street, hop on the on-ramp, and take the highway to the next town from my alley. So, I had to change it.

Now I have mentioned my husband's "frugalness." Due to said frugality, buying a new chandelier was just not in the cards. So the other option? Paint that shiz. Now it took a few years of living in the house to actually figure out the logistics of getting the job done, but I finally decided to pull the trigger on one fine November afternoon. It just so happened that that afternoon was also the afternoon of my husband's birthday. The man's a saint, but we will get to that more in a bit.

My husband works at home, so it's pretty easy for me to go run a couple quick errands during nap time while the two little ones are snoozing. As with most of my projects, I wasn't quite totally committed to the project starting that day. "I'll just head over to the hardware store and see how much it is to rent a scaffolding," I thought to myself. WELL... did you know that scaffolding is incredibly cheap to rent? As in like twenty-ish dollars to rent for a couple of levels, for a couple of days. Well, if you know me, you know I was sold almost immediately. And if you don't know me, well... you will soon come to know my incredible impulsivity and love of a good deal. So I rented it. Now I just had to get it home.

My next move was the clear move, if you ask me. I had to get the thing home. So, armed with my half pint of flat black latex paint, I did what any level headed woman would do and rented a truck to get all that metal back home. Now, I would have to say that when you think about it, it's pretty amazing that I rented a scaffolding to paint the chandelier in our 2 story foyer all by myself. I, however, really feel that the most astounding part of the whole story is that I was able to get myself to the hardware store, rent a truck, get the scaffolding home, return the truck, get back home again, and unload all the scaffolding ALL BEFORE THE KIDS WOKE UP FROM NAP. I mean, if that feat doesn't deserve a few clapping hands emojis, I don't know what does.

But I can't take all the applause. Remember how I mentioned that my husband is a saint? The reasons for this statement are endless, but in this particular situation, he blew it out of the park. Naturally, he heard the crashing and clanking that was caused by my sole self pulling the metal scaffolding out of the metal truck. Note: NOT quiet. He came outside to his birthday surprise, and like the trooper he is, grabbed the other side and started to hull metal. We quickly got it all inside and set up, and I was climbing up and painting in no time. The entire project took us a day and a half.

All in all, it was actually pretty easy. Once I got over the minor shakiness in my legs, I threw on some tunes and painted away. A second set of eyes from below was super helpful, as there were lots of nooks and crannies that I missed at first. Also, The chandelier had to be on, so as you can imagine, I was quickly seeing stars. But two coats did the trick.

The Details

Supplies:

Ugly chandelier

Scaffolding

1/2 pint flat black latex paint

Small (this is vital to getting all the nooks and crannies) paint brush

Drop cloth

That's Liz. Just casually painting a chandelier. While sitting on some scaffolding. That she rented during nap time without telling her husband. On his birthday.

Honestly, the whole thing is pretty self explanatory, and there really wasn't much to it. I chose to paint it by hand rather than spray it because I didn't want to deal with the black film all over my house that would come along with spray painting a fixture of that size. The one caveat: MAKE SURE YOU GET A TALL ENOUGH SCAFFOLDING. I rented enough to reach the top of the chandelier with no problem. However, reaching the ceiling medallion was another story. Standing on a step ladder... that was being held by my husband... who was also standing on top of a scaffolding was not one of the brighter decisions that we have ever made. Yes, you read that right. He climbed up on to the scaffolding that he didn't even know he was renting on his birthday. Saint. But I got that medallion painted. It was all worth it in the end, because we love our made-over chandelier.

So you've got an ugly chandelier? Get out there and rent that scaffolding on your spouse's birthday. You've totally got this.

BEFORE AND AFTER.

So. Much. Better.