Light up your life!!

or at least your hallway..in this case! Hi everybody, I’m Peter...the guy Laura has been talking about :) Today I want to share a project we worked on this past weekend that is practically free if you have a little imagination and a few old light fixtures lying around.

 When we first moved in  the lights in our upstairs hallway were dated and definitely something we wanted to change. In an effort to save money we got creative and combined fixtures we had around the house...elements off an old patio gazebo chandelier and the existing hallway lights. 

I started by breaking down each fixture into its useable components and found what would fit together with the old ones. Initially what sparked this whole idea was the crackle glass globes from the gazebo chandelier so we set those aside. I proceeded to remove the light socket and break down the factory materials to be able to use the setting the globes screwed into. This was quite difficult, it needed a little extra muscle and the help of vise-grips to get to the nut off at the base but I managed!

After I took all the necessary pieces from the gazebo chandelier; the glass spheres, setting they screwed into and metal rings; I combined them with other parts from old-school 1960’s fixture; the existing wiring, ceiling mount and lighting socket. 

I worked all of these elements together, with a coat of Glidden Gripper primer and Krylon hammered finish silver spray paint, to give the mix-matched piece a unified look. All the parts fit together perfectly and created truly custom lighting for our home. 

                           

We are so excited with how both pieces turned out and really love the warm glow the new modern fixtures give with the  vintage light bulbs that we used!!

I hope our project inspires all of you to try this too...rather than buy...just DIY!! (because for some things ideas are better than anything you could buy!!...in my opinion) Thank you all for reading my first post to our blog...now go out there and try something new and different!!!!  


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