Friday, December 17, 2010

Chandy

One of the things I've always wanted in my living space is a chandelier. I've admired many chandeliers in stores, other peoples houses and of course, many DIY projects in the blogosphere. The dinning area in my apartment as I inherited it from my apartment complex was pretty bland.

The Day I Moved In

After some decorating

It started like this:


Gosh, I took really horrible pictures of this! I got this baby at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore for about $15. I also bought a can of spray paint after a couple days of internal debate, and then got to spray painting.
If I learned anything while spray painting this, its that I'm not very good at spray painting.



I spray painted her outside on my balcony, at night. My neighbors probably think I am nuts.

After I painted, and painted, and painted, I decided it was time to hang her up. Hanging the chandelier up really wasn't as hard or scary as I thought it might be, but I definitely needed the help of a guy friend who had hung a hardwired fixture before. It took a while for us to figure out the exact order in which we should hang things, even with reading the directions. But it was a fun puzzle. Our arms were definitely tired after.

I wanted to add some "bling" to the fixture, so I added some ornaments I picked up from Target to each arm, and one from the center.



The next step will be to fix up the ceiling where I removed the old fixture. It looks like the fixture that was there was original, and that part of the ceiling was never painted. 

The light doesn't seem to be in the center of the space, so I've done my best to center the table under the light while keeping the table in the "center" of the area....I think it actually looks more off in these pictures than in real life.

I'm unsure what else I am going to do with this chandelier, if anything. If I could find a tasteful way to add more bling to it, I would do that. I'm also open to repainting a different color--if I could pick a different color. The one I originally picked works decently with the other things in the apartment, I think. You can see the plates in the background on the wall that have a similar color in them.

Before:

After:
 






 

7 comments:

  1. What a fabulous color and huge impact this made! I love it!

    Have a great weekend....

    Lisa

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  2. I think the color you picked is perfect! It looks great!

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  3. That red looks great with the plates on the wall. You should really try and center that chandy though. Maybe you could get a longer chain, and put a hook above the center of the room for the chandelier to hang from.

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  4. Good job, what a huge change! Love the plates on the wall too!

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  5. So, I'm no professional photographer, but if you want the best out of your camera (especially if it's a point-and-shoot), try to only take photos during the daytime using natural sunlight. It really helps!

    ...or, it helped me. Almost all of my food photos are taken the afternoon after I cooked them: during daytime instead of nighttime. Mmm, leftovers :)

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  6. Iris, I definitely agree with you. It's just harder these days with it getting dark before I get home from work.
    I get anxious waiting for the weekend to take daylight pictures and just do it anyway. :-)

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  7. That is such a cool chandelier! You picked an awesome color. It looks fabulous!

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