Chandelier Make-Over

When we first saw our condo as part of our house-hunting adventures, we really liked the space but were shocked at one of the light fixtures. It wasn't ugly per se, just shockingly out of place. Pablo considered including the removal of said piece as one of the terms in our offer, but the Realtor advised against it just in case we offended the current owner. Chances are she spent quite a bit of money putting the thing up there and liked it enough to keep it.

After we finalized the purchase and moved in we just stopped looking up and started ignoring this blight in our ceiling. Having recently hired a contractor/electrician to install a fan/light in the Klingle Basement we knew the removal/replacement of the chandelier wouldn't be cheap and it was something we could defer to a later date.

It just so happened that a week or so ago, as I was warming up on the treadmill before my yoga class and watching HG-TV, one of their shows suggested sprucing up awful light fixtures with shades to soften their light. I had one of those "a ha!" moments that nearly threw me off the machine, so I stored the idea away in the back of my mind. Fast forward to our trip to Lowes this past weekend and I was determined to do something about this fixture.

The first item I would tackle would be the mismatched bulbs. Some were rounded, some were pointy, some had different wattage ratings. It all added up to one big mess. Browsing the wall of light bulbs at Lowes, we found a six-pack of frosted bulbs that would work. Ideally they would be rounded, but it seems no one thought of making rounded frosted bulbs and found it easier to force everyone to buy those ugly tipped bulbs.

The second step was finding a set of small, neutral, simple light shades to put over the bulbs. Their frosted color would soften the light, but there's still something awfully tacky about exposed bulbs. Lucky us this Lowes actually stocked more than 2 units of any one item and we were able to buy 6 shades.

The before and after

We got home and despite being exhausted from our expedition into suburbia, we decided to tackle the chandelier. First step was to replace the bulbs. Immediately it looks better when lit. Once up there, with my face up against all its bling, I noticed that the "crystals" where held together by little malleable gold clips and that they weren't permanently attached to the fixture.

We started out talking about taking all the crystals down and washing them. Then we moved to only putting back some of them so it wouldn't look as heavy, and we ended up shortening and putting back up only a few of the strands of fake crystals. Overall it is much more subdued and the light from it is softer and more pleasant.

The clips wasn't the only thing I noticed while changing the bulbs. The leaves and branches on this thing had never been cleaned and the thick layer of dust had to go. While I Swiffer-ed between gold-gilded leaves and bulbs, the Mexican decided to start playing with the crystals. We had always joked about turning them into jewelry once the fixture came down and he was getting a head start on that plan. Working diligently with his little Mexican fingers, he produced 3 strands of crystals of various lengths. Once satisfied with their heft, he strung them over his head like fine diamonds and rushed to the bathroom to check himself out in the mirror. His face was brighter than a kid's on Christmas morning. Alas I forced him to put the crystals away on the promise that they would be kept safely in a plastic bag until next October when they would resurface and take part in a fabulous Miss Adams Morgan outfit.

Despite being a small, affordable project, getting to work on it together made it feel much more significant. This wasn't a radical change, but it was a small step towards making this our home.