The Painted Hive

Question: What do you get when you take….

one kinda very ugly old light fixture,

a can of black spray paint,

some blingy old necklaces you wore once to a wedding three years ago,

and an el-cheapo drum shade from Target?

Answer: A pretty awesome ‘new’ glamorous ceiling light for under $20 – score!

To ‘create’ this new light fixture I first took the original light apart and sprayed all the really lovely polished brass with flat black spray paint.

I chose black because I wanted the finished light to have a dramatic, parisian edge.

I then divided out my beads into even lengths (still on their necklace string) and used the wire out of some bread ties (hey, that was what I had on hand – and it did the job!) to create little rings in each of the holes you can see in the light above (the holes were previously for the screws holding on the lovely frilly glass shades).

Next I attached the ends of my bead strips to the wire rings to create chandelier-like loops.

Once re-attached to the ceiling and encased in the drum shade the ‘new’ light makes for a pretty impressive and very thrifty little addition to my parent’s sitting room.

It’s hard to tell from the pics though it looks pretty awesome lit up. The light bounces off the crystal-cut beads and creates some real bling.

Here it is in place….

The drum shade is held up by being sandwiched between the light canopy and stem.

So again, just for comparisons sake, from tired old-fashioned drab….

To chic parisian fab (if I do say so myself)….