I had this fantabulous idea when we bought this house 4.5 years ago: I will paint the bright brass chandelier with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint and it will look fabulous!  I kept putting off, thinking I have time to get it done.  If you read yesterday’s post, the fact that I put this off for 4.5 years should not be a surprise.

This is my inspiration pic from Capitol Lighting. Sadly out of our budget though.

Well folks, today was the day that I took on the challenge of the great chandelier.  And it hasn’t been fun.  I naively thought that cleaning it would only take about 20 minutes.  HA! The joke was on me.

Here’s the nasty original chandelier.

Cheap Builder-Grade Brass Chandelier

The chandelier came down easily.  I got a few dust bunnies up my nose, but that’s to be expected since I have never cleaned it. I never claimed to be a great housekeeper.

Taking it apart was easy too. I laid out all the pieces in order so that I could remember how it goes back together.

Disassembled Chandelier

I really wanted to pull the light sockets out to so that I could completely dismantle it, but was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to weave the wires back through the curvy arms.  So, I taped off as much of the electrical parts as I could before the washing began.

 

I put all of the parts (except for the main body–didn’t think it was a good idea to soak all those wires) into very hot water with dawn soap and vinegar.  I let them soak for about 30 minutes.  I pulled out the first piece to wipe it down with a soft microfiber cloth.

This is what happened:

“What fresh hell can this be?”

If you know who this quote is from–without using a search engine–you are my new bestie.

This weird coating was on Every. Single. Piece.

And it was difficult to completely remove it.

After TWO hours of the fresh hell that I was now in, I daydreamed of throwing the whole chandelier out of my kitchen window–but not before beating it with a sledge hammer.

Yeah. I was THAT irritated.  

I had plans. Wonderful plans. I was going to be doing the happy dance at 5pm when hubby got home.  

I was going to show him the window treatment that I FINALLY got around to mounting.

I was going to show him all of the lovely switch plate covers that replaced our ugly dingy cheap ones.  

I was going to skip down into the garage and show him the chandelier in all it’s beautiful Oil Rubbed Bronze glory drying on the garage floor.  

He was going to pick me up and swing me around and tell me how happy he was that I accomplished so much. 

Stupid daydreams. Stupid Chandelier.

It took a total of FOUR hours to remove every last bit of that coating. 

When I was done, I laid it all out on the dining room table to dry. And I glared at it.

Gunk Free and Clean!

Round 1 (cleaning): Chandelier

When it was dry I took it all down to the garage for a nice coat of primer.

Goodbye Brass!

Round 2 (Bye-Bye Brass): Me–yay!

I took great pleasure in defacing priming every centimeter of that bright brass. Fortunately, I had just enough primer to cover everything.

Shortly after this, hubby came home from work.

After he tells me about his interesting class–some kind of investigative cop class (I’d tell you but then…you would be bored) I delved into telling him about my day.

He just laughed. He said “did you really think it would be so simple?”

Well–DUH! Of course I did!

After dinner I went out to the garage. I was determined to get her painted before the end of the night.

I was LOVING the way he Oil Rubbed Bronze (ORB from here on out!)  was looking.  I sprayed very light coats.  3 to be exact.

ORB Beauty

BUT, I ran out of paint towards the end of the 3rd coat.  Then I realized that I didn’t prime all of the pieces.  The end pieces were still upstairs. *SIGH*

Round 2 (Bye-Bye Brass): Me–yay! Chandelier

Round 3 (Hello ORB): Chandelier

The chandelier is now on hold until next week.  It’s just not in the budget to run out and get more primer and ORB. So stay tuned. I am determined to win at least ONE round with the chandelier!