I can never leave well enough alone. That’s the gist of this post.

Remember the other day when I couldn’t leave our white plastic mirrors alone? And I prettyfied them with Rub ‘n Buff? I couldn’t help it with this one. I really couldn’t. Because now I must Rub ‘n Buff all the things!

And this time, the victim was our new light fixture for our foyer. Yes, new. Who buys a new light fixture and then paints it? This girl, apparently.

The last time I showed y’all a glimpse of our freshly painted foyer, it was rockin’ this old chandelier.

It’s so beautiful but I just wasn’t feeling it for our style. I blame the dainty porcelain floral tea set feel it had to it, but there was no WAY I was going to do any sort of DIY makeover to it. That’s blasphemy to antique lovers everywhere. So that beauty is getting sold to someone else who will appreciate it more.

I had no idea what I wanted to replace it with, until I spotted this antique gold frosted crystal chandelier recently at Pottery Barn and instantly knew I wanted a semi-flush mount version just like it… only for maybe $250 less.

So I found this cheaper black and glass version for about $100 on Amazon, and as soon as it arrived, I busted out the painting supplies.

Semi-DIY Antique Gold Frosted Crystal Light Fixture:

Supplies Used:  (Some affiliate links are provided below for convenience.)

• Crystal basket light fixture
• Rub ‘n Buff in Antique Gold
• Krylon Sea Glass Spray Paint in Gray
• Plastic drop cloth
• Artist brush

This is what the fixture looked like before. I really could have hung it up with the black and clear crystal and it would have still been gorgeous, but the idea of antique gold was too fun to pass up.

I used the same tube of Rub ‘n Buff I had leftover from our mirrors I painted because a little goes a long way with this stuff.

It took me all of 10 minutes to rub it all over the black metal using just my fingertips.

And for any of the small, hard to reach details, I used an artist brush.

Since I wanted to antique the crystals, I laid them all out on a plastic drop cloth in our garage. I would never do this to expensive crystals, but since these are technically just inexpensive glass, I didn’t feel so bad about frosting them.

Krylon makes this beautiful sea glass spray I’d been dying to try (I was really tempted to use the aquamarine green color but decided on the more neutral gray). Just spritz on a coat (on the crystals I sprayed both sides) and glass is aged with this gorgeous sea glass effect. I want to try it out on some random jars and bottles sometime too.

Once everything was dry, we hung it right up. Doesn’t it look so high-end?! The paint cost maybe an extra $10-15? I ended up finding this light almost exactly like it for $240. Mine cost me $120 total. 50% off isn’t too shabby, huh?

So now the foyer is coming right along. It’s still not entirely finished on the staircase, and I might end up painting the pulls on the marble top chest so we don’t have so many mixed metals going on.

Considering, I went into this space without a plan at all, I’m pretty amazed. This is how it used to look, just for comparison’s sake…

See what I mean?! Wowza!

It’s even prettier at night when we have this fixture turned on and the crystals make the light dance all over the walls and ceiling.

 Have you had any light fixture makeovers lately at your house? Or painted something brand new? Am I the only crazy one here?

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