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.