Before and After: Lighting

We are in the process of redecorating our son's room which we are documenting with a video camera to share with you all next week. I'm pretty excited about being able to put a video up here at An Oregon Cottage, it's a much easier way of showing a process. Plus, it's fun.

In the meantime, I had to share some pictures of the solution to the lighting problems in the room. The lighting in this room was either cheap-looking or really dated. But when I started looking at light fixtures that weren't as cheap-looking as what we already had, I saw that what I liked was between $30 and $40 dollars.

Which doesn't seem that expensive, except that we're on a tight budget and what we've allotted really needed to go towards paint, flooring materials, and furniture.

Then I went to a couple of thrift stores looking for furniture and a lamp to replace the dated brass one already in the room. Can I just say that thrift stores around here have gotten ridiculously expensive? Goodness, they wanted $10 to $$15 dollars for ugly old lamps (and the furniture? Broken dressers for $49!).

What happened? We used to find such good things at thrift stores. Now we just get clothes or small items there and leave the big stuff for Craigslist.

So, no lighting. I then went to plan B and looked for a spray paint to paint the ones we already had.

I found this $8 can of Oil Rubbed Bronze metallic paint by Rustoleum. I was a little worried about the "metallic" part, but couldn't find any type of matte paint, so I took a chance.

And I LOVE it! Look at the difference in the before and after pictures:

Here's the ceiling fixture before. Functional, but really cheap-looking. But I think we paid $13 for it, so...um, form follows cost here.

Good golly molly! Same fixture...can you believe it? I think it looks a million times better. Richer and looks like more than $13 for sure.

I've always loved the shape of this lamp and the quality. The shiny brass? Not so much.

Probably why it was relegated to my son's room.

Wow. I can see this in our living room now. But I'm going to let my son keep it, anyway.

It's hard to see the effect in these pictures, but the metallic part is very subtle. It's not quite as matte as some oil-rubbed bronze things I've seen, but is very close. And I actually kinda like the subtle sparkle, it adds a bit of depth.

I love, love, love how these turned out and now my mind is racing with the other applications I can find for this paint.

First on the list, though, are our doorknobs we replaced when we moved in five years ago. The oil-rubbed bronze has worn off the knobs, leaving shiny brass. At more than $25 each, it would be prohibitive to buy all new ones.

Oh, am I glad I found this!


-Jami

This is linked to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land, Get Your Craft On, Trash to Treasure Tuesday at Reinvented and Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm.