I love lamp...only after it cleans itself up though

Oh, hello garage sale lamp my husband picked up to resell on Craigslist for a profit.  What's that?  You'd rather I clean you up into something less 50's brothel and stay home with me.  OKAY!

So that's my story.  This project was quick, easy, and resulted in some much needed extra lighting in our living room.  Previously, we had zero lamps in that room which was insanely annoying.  At night, it was either full overhead lighting or total darkness.  I'm more of an in between person when it comes to my lighting preference.  When BJ brought this lamp home, I was instantly in love.  It's so unique with the curved details of the metal that holds that glass white spotted glass shade.  The color of the base needed some work though.  It's that old antiquey but not in a good way bronze-brass color.  



Goodness, do we a fence or what....

These beads are terrible too.  They remind me of the leg lamp from A Christmas Story but not in a pleasant way which seems almost impossible to do when it comes to that movie.  Besides, as soon as this lamp was brought inside, the cats were WAY too into it.  Hobbes stared and talked to it anytime they were allowed in the same room together and Yigs stared it down the way she does to everything she intends to stalk/attack.  If I didn't remove the beads, the kittens surely would have in a much more destructive way.

Luckily, whoever added these beads must have realized how terrible they would be perceived in the future and made them easy to remove.  Velcro, people.  It's a miracle.

Here, you can also see a more detailed view of the original color of the lamp base.  I don't hate it but with the way our house is currently styled, this color would have popped out in a not so good way.

As you could probably surmise from the above pictures where this lamp is sitting on a piece of cardboard outside, I opted for my go-to when it comes to makeovers and planned on spray painting the base of the lamp an oil rubbed bronze color.  Prior to painting, I wiped the whole lamp down to clean up any dust/grime so the spray paint would have a clean surface to grab onto.  The only other prep work was wrapping some masking tape around the electrical element whatever that the bulb screws into and putting the cord in a plastic bag.  Three steps that took all of five minutes and then it was spray painting time.

One spray paint montage later and we have this.

Ah! Ghost!

So much better without the beads

Close up of the new color



Okay, so truth telling time.  I like how the lamp turned out and I LOVE having the extra lighting in the living room but I hate the way the lamp looks in the room.  A floor lamp just isn't going to work here.  It also feels dwarfed by the overall size of the room. 



Aw, it's just a lil' guy

Plus, we have a bit of a walkway on this side of the couch and the lamp gets in the way of that.  With my klutzy tendencies, having an obstacle in a walking path is a combination for trouble.  Or a combination for a broken lamp. 


Find the cat....and ignore the mess....

 So, as a result of all this, my newly redone lamp has not found it's permanent home as of yet.  It's still chilling in the living room until I can figure something else out because, as I've stated, the extra lighting is awesome.  There's a table lamp in our den that I may switch out here after some furniture switch-a-roos.  I love a good room makeover that costs nothing.  And who knows.  Once I find a permanent spot for this lamp, I may spray paint it an entirely different color.  Hence why spray paint is so awesome. The lesson learned from this whole project though was that floor lamps are not going to work in our living room. 

Also maybe put the lamp in the room before you paint it to see how it looks.  I just get so excited to work on stuff sometimes....I'm working on it....I was also a bit desperate for a quick project to post up this week.  Either way, if the lamp doesn't end up anywhere else in the house, it'll just fulfill its original desitiny and end up on Craigslist.