Here is a quick and easy way to change over a kitchen light fixture that so many of us have (including myself- sorry about the crooked shade! lol)

Sometimes when you get tired of a light fixture the only cure is to replace it. At first glance this may look like one of those instances but not only is that not the case- updating this type of fixture is a very quick, easy and cheap change up.

    All you have to do is remove the glass globes that come with the fixture and you will be left with regular light bulbs. You then need to replace those bulbs with chandelier (flame looking) bulbs with standard bulb bases to make this work. The shades need to clip on the bulbs and they won’t clip to standard bulbs.

    You can purchase fancy shades like these, glass beaded shades, or whatever type you like at many locations- craft stores, home centers and lighting stores but once you get to know me you know I am always going to create something a little bit different. I actually made these shades myself from plain shades that I purchased and then antiqued with gold colored paint. I watered it down and rubbed it on with a rag. For the trim I looked around for some trim and I couldn’t find anything I liked so I purchase eyelash yarn with all the string hanging out of it and layered that with basic braided upholstery trim (they actually sell something like this but it is really expensive and the colors are limited). I laid it out and twisted it together to form thicker strands and hot glued it to the edges of the shades.

    I then just clipped my new creations to the chandelier bulbs and “new old fixture”!

This project took me a few hours because I customized my shades but if you just purchased ones you liked from the store, this transformation is done in less than a half hour!

Simple Chandie Transformation

Sunday, March 21, 2010