Chandeliers! DIY: Painting a Brass Chandelier

Did you hear?  My house had 15 chandeliers when we bought it.  No joke.  Not one that we would ever pick out or wish to live with.  We replaced one of them with a purchase from West Elm.  Next up:  paint one for the kids' bedroom.   After doing adequate research on the topic and making an "urgent" trip to Home Depot...you know, must get there before it closes on Saturday night to be armed to tackle project at break of dawn Sunday morning?  And then pulling the trigger to get it done, dragging myself and paying a babysister to watch the sleeping babies while we are trudging the aisles at 10PM on a Saturday night to load up on the needed kit of tools?  Yeah, that was the start of this project.  And turns out, that trip to Home Depot, was actually a joke, since I did not actually get to this project for a full 3 weeks after said "urgent" trip.  Uggh, I hate it when that happens.  The upside is that when I had a random, unexpected free block of several hours on that future Saturday, voila! I already had all the tools needed and did not have to spend those day light hours at Home Depot.

Supplies purchased:  

1. Rubber gloves - protect those hands.

2.  TSP:  Uber cleaner rubbed on all surfaces with an old t-shirt to clean and ready for priming.

3.  Painters Tape:  tape all electrical parts, and candle sticks if not painting.

4.  Spray Paint Primer:  White by Krylon.  Apply in thin coats.  Allow ample drying time in between (1-2 hours).

5.  Super fine sand paper sponge to sand down any drip spots, or scrubby part of a sponge.  I did this and scraped off the primer in doing so, so I do not recommend this step after all.  

6.  Spray Paint:  Purchased Watermelon, Yellow, Purple, White (returned all but Watermelon, which we used).

7. Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel.  I messed this up.  I thought it was a clear enamel to make this shiny.  Even though I bought glossy Watermelon, I thought this would be a protective shiner.  Well, it has a brown top.  Because IT IS BROWN.  Thank goodness I, as a fluke, did a little test on the box at the last second before spraying on my finished product.  It is indeed brown...though does not say so on the can, only on the price tag, which I missed.  So, I do not know if there is such a thing like clear nail polish to apply. I just skipped it after all.

The chandelier we started with.  Actually took it out of the girls' bathroom.

I'm kinda proud of my rigged up spray area.  Other posts did it directly on the ground, one recommended a cardboard box.  I used 2 saw horses draped in drop cloth, with our broom taped up to hang the chandelier upside down.  Which is really good, since you mostly see chandeliers from the bottom up anyway, so you want that part to be really good. I was just lucky that this lamp had a loop at the bottom to hang with already. All I had to do was find a dowel thin enough for it (our broom).

I took off the candle sleeves, and then taped the electrical parts.  This is it after the primer coat.

And this is it.  Dried already - see its shiny on its own.  

Hanging with the lights on above.  And lights off below.  Couldn't bring myself to buy more fun bulbs.  Our house came stocked with about 200 bulbs, so it is just a waste to go outside of our inventory. I do however long for these fun candle covers.  

And for those of you interested in Elliot's room make-over.

Here is the room when we bought the house. (Chandelier is different than the pink one we installed - this one is ready for its own repurposing.)

 Some might argue that the "before" in this instance is an eeensy bit better.  No more carpet, hard wood floors.  New pink chandelier.  Fancy purple walls.  Whole lotta kid stuff.  

Hooray for Kindergarten!

Elliot is at her first morning of kindergarten right now.  A rainy morning is not keeping us down...tho working the umbrella and the oversized backpack with the huge lunch box to house just plain carrots for a snack, maybe contributed to the wipeout that occurred before Ben ever finished his question, "Do you think we would let her walk to school alone?" Then wipeout in the wet mud.  Good thing we were just across the street from our house.  No injuries, Elliot got to switch to her new leggings that she wanted to wear in the first place, and we were back on our way.  We all did great at drop off.  I am going to pick her up at 12:30.  Then there is no school tomorrow.  Then the rest of September she is done at 12:30.  But then in October she has class until 12:30 3 days a week and 3 PM 2 days a week.  Really?! How confusing could they make this?  I hope she loves it - she told me she already knows everything, so I expect her to be reading by the time I pick her up today.

Bindi Kitty Post Script

It's been a bummer week at our place.  We had to take Bindi kitty back to the Animal Rescue League to find a new family to adopt her and we (mostly Ben & I) are taking it pretty hard.  I mentioned before that we were all a little allergic - but, it seemed to be getting better / livable.  We made her appointments at her new vet, we tore the packaging off her new climbing posts and toys, we posted her on our blog.  She had been sleeping on our bed for 3 weeks...she was in!  And shaping up to be a pretty good kitty.  But then Samantha had a nighttime cough.
We gave her Allegra for allergies in the morning (our first treatment to see if it would help at all, thinking we may need to do it more often, since we are keeping the kitty and Samantha cant keep her face out of Bindi's belly).
Then Samantha got a fever during the day.
Kassi called.  Gave her motrin for fever.
Kassi called again later (this should have been a sign for us in itself).
More fever + quick breathing+fast heart rate.
After work, we came home and saw Samantha.  Fevery & sick.  And wheezing with her quick shallow breaths.
Called the doctor.
Took Samantha to the ER to be assessed for respiratory distress.
They gave her a triple dose of Albuterol to open up her breathing and took chest x-rays.
Ruled out pneumonia, but said she showed signs of "Reactive Airways" which is baby asthma.

After much discussion with the doctors and our pediatrician the next day, we knew we had to take Bindi back.  We can't risk going to the ER to breathe every time someone in our house gets sick.  Plus, we felt like we had to do it quickly, while Bindi is still a kitten, so she has the best chance of being adopted again quickly.

So, on the way home from the hard last day at their day care and saying goodbye to teachers and friends as we move on to Kindergarten next week, we broke the news to them that Bindi had to go.  Ouch.  Copacabana all over again - tho justified.

By the way, the Animal Rescue League in Boston is AWESOME.  We had been spending all our time at the MSPCA in Jamaica Plain, but really should have been with ARL that whole time. It's where we got Bindi. They are fantastic.  Super helpful and nice.  And, very good to us in this whole unfortunate situation.  We're keeping track of Bindi while she is there and until we are sure she is in a new home.