The steps below follow the order of the work for this workshop project.
This project has been around the blog-o-sphere a little bit, but I still had to share it because it is quite genius. I love it when people have the ability to make from two separate, out of fashion pieces a unified, updated whole, that is just plain solid I really respect them! So, this fabulous lighting remake comes from Amy of Playing Sublimely. I also really liked it cause it reminded me of college and looking through all the solid Neirmann weeks collections no budgets in mind. They even still have my go-to light that looks like a decadent piece of jewelry the Biarritz Chandelier. Here is what Any did:
Oh how I love the look of a Niermann Weeks chandelier, and oh how I hate the price of them. My friend Karen who is one of the most fashionable ladies walking the planet, got me thinking about how to create the look of a Niermann Weeks chandelier. She is a girl after my own heart and loves to decorate fabulous for less. I have told you before that I am a “faux, faux finisher”. I pretend a little with decorative finishes, but I had never experimented with applying any products to a fixture before. So I gave it a shot.Here are a few finishes I liked from the Niermann Weeks collection, all priced over $5,500:
Here are a few of Brooke’s table lamps from her Giannetti lighting collection, love the finish of these as well:
And this is what I wanted to transform into something lovely: a $25 brass consignment store find. I liked the lines of it, and it was large enough to go in my foyer. Everything I used was products that I had around my house (Faux Effects plaster), but you could use regular plaster and tint it any color you wanted. I scooped the product up in my hands and smeared it all over the chandelier. My first plaster color was a bronze shade. I let that dry and then I repeated the exact same “technique” with a neutral color plaster (I am using that term loosely as my five year old helped me cover the chandelier in plaster with her hands). Once both layers had dried I sanded it a little by hand to let the darker shade underneath show through. We did change out the glass because I wanted an “old look”. We replaced the plain glass with “seeded glass” for a vintage feel. I considered not putting any glass in it at all. I think that would have been a nice look also, but ultimately the “seeded glass look” won me over. Then my cute carpenter risked his own life to hang my creation. He is a good man.Isn’t she lovely. Can you see the finish and texture? The seeded glass reflects specks on our walls at night…it’s dreamy. I love not having to spend $5,500 to get the look I want, and I love Karen for convincing me to try this. Didn’t she do a great job? It is so inspiring, it makes me want to get out and work on a project right now!
