A chandelier redo finishes the dining room...

There have been quite a few changes in the last couple of months around my house. The latest project to be completed is my dining room chandelier makeover ~ a project that helped finally finish this room.
Originally, the chandelier was brass ~ that terrible bright shiny brass that was popular a few decades ago. My house was simply plagued with it ~ the light switches, the fireplace insert and the dining room chandelier were all shiny brass. Slowly but surely it has all been eradicated, thank goodness.
When I first lived here, I decided to just paint the chandelier with a creamy white that went perfectly with my sort of shabby chic dining room; after all, the chandelier worked fine and had pretty lines, just an ugly finish. But after I completely redid the dining room last year, the chandelier didn’t really go any more.
At first I was just going to replace it but after looking and looking, I couldn’t really afford anything I liked. So I decided to try another home makeover to dress it up. I bought three little bottles of paint suitable for painting on metal, a couple of sponge brushes and some crystals ~ all of which cost me about $20 ~ and got down to work. 

I painted the chandelier with a couple of coats of glossy black to start with, then painted the candlesticks a dark metallic gray. I went through the crystals next, trying to figure out what would go where ~ I think that took even longer than the painting.

Once all that was figured out, I went back and put the final touch of paint on the chandelier ~ this time, I used the bronze paint I had bought. I wanted to make the chandelier finish mimic the other finishes in the room; the dining room chairs have metal frames with this sort of old bronze finish, as does all the wall decor in the room. I applied the bronze paint very lightly, emphasizing certain areas and sponging it off others. When I was done, it looked like this:

And here’s the full view:

A definite improvement, don’t you think? Best of all, the bronze finish and the crystals catch and reflect the light just like I hoped, as you can see below. If I had left it plain black, it would have just sucked up the light.

Along with the chandelier makeover came a couple of other changes in the dining room, the main one being this piece of art below. One of my dear friends has had this heron print for ages and it’s always been one of my favorites. It was tucked away in a guest room in her new house and I told her it would look really good in my dining room ~ I had been trying to find the right piece of art for that wall for a year and nothing was working. I knew instinctively the heron print would be perfect, particularly with my bird wall stencil, so my friend brought it to my house to live for awhile. (In case you’re wondering, this is something I have done for years with two of my friends. A piece of art or furniture no longer works for one of us but would be perfect in another’s house, so it goes to live with them for an undetermined amount of time, usually with the understanding that the piece still belongs to the original owner and they can have it back whenever they need it. Of course, I don’t recall any of us ever needing anything back, but still, it’s nice to have the option.)

This is what my dining room looked like last year after I finished redecorating and buying new furniture:

And here is what it looks like now, after the chandelier makeover and with the art and accessories changed around. You can also see the kitchen has been repainted in that time, from green to a golden yellow that goes beautifully with the rest of the house.

I also finally found the perfect mirror for this corner (in my attic, of all places), and moved the blue glass that was on the sideboard to the top of the secretary. 

I’m so happy with how it all came together. Those finishing touches really do make a difference. What do you think?

And in case you’ve forgotten, or haven’t seen the in-progress posts, here’s what the dining room looked like to start with:

I am linking to:

A Return to Loveliness at A Delightsome Life
The DIY’ers at Home Coming
Mod Mix Monday at Mod Vintage Life
Make it Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Blue Monday at Smiling Sally

Photos by The Art of Living Beautifully