the long abandoned chandelier

My husband and I bought our house a little over twelve years ago.


After two years of house hunting all over parts of Los Angeles, 


the Lord led us to this neighborhood that we had never heard of, nor stepped foot in before.


That face was me saying, "OH BOY... what are we getting ourselves into???"


Because it was a major fixer.  Built in 1949, lived in by the same family since 1950.

This was the dining room complete with mirrored paneling around 


the inset, textured wallpaper, and a lovely yellow shag carpet on the 
floor.


The chandelier.  It was ho hum.  I took the crystals off and planned 
to do something with it.


But many other projects (like the moldings I meticulously mapped out with tape)


and many other to-do lists took precedence.


And well, twelve years passed and the chandelier still hung without it's crystals.


For a long while the room was this Martha Stewart A1 red with Dunn Edwards Pearl White.  How I loved it.

But I longed for a change and we switched to more of a gray/blue.  The bottom is still Dunn Edwards Pearl White, but the moldings are DE Swiss Coffee.  I loved the contrast of the ivory and white.  

I can be such a color girl, and this gray was a little too blue, and it never felt right to me.


So I finally found the right mix of gray/green/blue in Benjamin Moore's Wales Gray. 

But still I hadn't gotten to the chandelier.


So recently I decided it was time.


We could restore the brass or paint it or just get a new one.


When I started looking, the things I liked were


around $4,000 dollars.  Of course.


So I told my husband I wanted to take a risk.


I wanted to paint it, a deep teal.


I fell in love with Newburg Green by Benjamin Moore.

It looks a little odd for a chandelier, but stick with me.


I wish I could say that I did it all myself, but we hired


a painter with a professional sprayer to paint the base Newburg Green.


He had to cover up the entire room with plastic, something I probably wouldn't have done


and probably would have made a mess.  


But I did hand paint the gold accents and distressed the whole thing


to give it more of an aged look. 

The Newburg Green is part of their historic colors and I think it does have a nice antique feel.


And it's unique.  Even though I used to think the crystals were sort of an odd shape.  

They've grown on me and now I like that they seem more modern and geometric.  I'm so glad I saved them all these years.  This also taught me you really can change your mind on something you may at first think isn't very pretty.

And the girls were oh so excited to be my helpers putting all the crystals back.

They took their job very seriously.

They actually were a big help, because I was able to make dinner while they quietly worked away.

Now I'm just oh so glad we actually finished the job 


and my husband said, "It looks awesome."

So take that $4,000 dollar chandeliers!


And this inspired more progress on long awaited projects.

Like finally painting a chalkboard for the dining room.  


I used the Newburg Green and the gold paint and can't


wait to change out scriptures, inspirational sayings and menus 


as the months go by.

Another long needed re-do is my son's room.


He has had this since he was two.

And he's now 9 1/2.  So it is time to do some updating.  Painting this...

inspired painting this.

Slowly I'm working on making his room look more grown up.  


The girls room is getting a new addition too.

These desks, painted a pretty blue have my mind 


spinning with ideas to transform the area into a little


creative station all their own.


Happy Weekend everyone!