Our Chandelier

I fear you may be growing very tired of seeing these images of my dining room.  This would be understandable.  However, in the interest of encouraging others who may benefit from my experiences in making relatively simple and inexpensive changes, I'm going to tell you about our china cabinet and our chandelier.  Today, the chandy.

First, I would like to remind you of the situation when we first moved in.  I really wish I had taken a better shot that could give you the full effect of the offensive light fixture with which we were greeted when we moved in.  Key to its offensiveness was not necessarily its generic style (though this did not excite me), but the fact that it was hung completely off center in the room and the chain from which it was supposed to hang was literally all wrapped up and tangled so that it barely hung at all!  It wanted to be a chandelier but it was being treated like a flush-mount :)  Truly I tell you, an assault against beauty.

I knew I would need to do something to replace this sucker, and of course I wanted to minimize my costs.  {However, light fixtures are things you can take with you when you move, so if money allows I say go for something nice that speaks to you, even if you're a renter!} As is the case with most of my little projects, I simply copy other people's ideas :)  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right?

All that to say, my chandelier is the Maskros from Ikea, but it started out looking quite different from the way it does now!

I first read on Jenny's blog about how she cut down the little flowers (they're made of paper!) and painted the whole thing.  Countless others have also done this and many have put their own personal touch on theirs.  The only difference between what I did and what Jenny did is I spray painted mine (with Rustoleum's Metallic Antique Brass), I didn't cut my flowers down quite as much as she did, and I didn't glue the little clear cups on the flowers.  Once I'd gotten everything sprayed, I convinced Philip that we needed to anchor a little hook in the ceiling so that forthelove, the fixture could hang above the center of our table.  Amen and Amen.

For 40 bucks (it was on sale when I bought it) plus the cost of some spray paint, I am more than pleased with this guy.  I love the scale of it, and I really like how the modern style acts as a nice counterpoint to my traditional furniture.

I looked around and found a few more images of Ikea's Maskros for your viewing and inspiration pleasure.

Such a fun, whimsical touch in a nursery!

This looks amazing (and hard to do?).

via

A fun hack with an ombre effect!