After finding her, I now have a list of a million things I want to make or refinish. It'll keep me busy when Tim deploys again next year. One of the projects she did was to refinish some ugly, brassy, crystal lamps; a little spray paint, a new lampshade and voila! A brand new beautiful lamp! So I started thinking, 'I can do that too!' I just needed to get some lamps in need of a new home and all the essential supplies and I would have some gorgeous lamps for my master bedroom. So I started looking on ebay to see what I could find and I came across three lamps that I had to have. Two were crystal and brass and the other was this awesome driftwood lamp: one crystal lamp for my nightstand, the driftwood lamp for hubby's nightstand and the other crystal lamp for my craft and sewing desk. And the best part was I got all three for under $100, including shipping! I actually think the shipping was the most expensive part of the whole project.
I just finished the two crystal lamps today and they look gorgeous! Here is a picture of one of them before:
Notice the rust on the bottom...classy.
I forgot to take a before picture of the other crystal lamp but it's basically the same idea, although the crystal design is a bit different. And no wonder the shipping was so expensive...those suckers were heavy!
During this project I discovered that I really like taking things apart and putting them back together. Here are the lamps after they were disassembled and before I started spray painting.
Gianna was NOT in the mood to have her picture taken.
Yesterday it was warm enough to start painting and since it was my first time spray painting anything, it took a little while. But the results made it all worth it and the 'Heirloom White' was the perfect color for this project.
Finally it was time to put them together, the moment I had been waiting for! I purchased some lamp re-wiring kits at Wal-mart because who knows how old the current wiring was. And the lamp shades were quite a find. The white shade to go with the lamp for my desk I found at TJ Maxx for $10. And the shade for the other lamp I got at Pottery Barn with a gift card so it was FREE. So, after all the scrounging for deals and elbow grease, I have a couple of (NEW!) gorgeous crystal lamps!
I paid 99 cents for the first lamp and 9.95 for the second lamp...for real! A crystal lamp can retail for hundreds so I'm pretty happy with what a steal these were. And now I have a lamp for my nightstand and it looks perfect.
I know I said I got a third lamp...a driftwood lamp...but I will have to save that one for later. It needs LOTS of tlc because it is the ugliest thing right now!
But just wait. When I'm done with it, this nasty, narly piece of driftwood is going to be the perfect masculine lamp for my hubby's side of the bed. But for right now I'm going to peek into my room to ooh and aah over my new feminine crystal reading lamp...again.
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