Happy Labor Day weekend!!!  I hope you all have some wonderful plans.  Anyone taking any last-minute vacations?

I love long weekends, as they give me a chance to start a new project, hopefully finish it, AND even get a chance to pick up and put the house back in order on that Monday before the work week begins.  LOL!  Who am I trying to kidding!

My house never seems to get put back together unless I have family members coming in to visit.  THAT is the only  time my house looks pretty good!  PT is reading this, simulating his own version of a bobble head!  Hmmmm……  I wonder if he ever reads these posts???  Probably not!

Disregard the awful picture that was taken before I ripped out the carpet on the stairs, and stained the banister a darker tone.  Also ignore the drinks on the carpet, and the towels laying over the banister.  Why don’t I pick up before taking these “before” pictures?

See those 2 ceiling lights that look like a certain female body part?  I don’t like them!  I don’t know if it is because they are brass, or if it really is because they look like a body part.  {shrug}   Don’t know…..  All I know is that I have been looking for new lights for the longest time.  Like …..  forever!!!  

Now I haven’t been obsessed with the looking, just peaking in and out of stores when I am already out and about.  The perfect time for me was during all of the hockey weekends, when you are killing time between games!

Problem was, nothing was striking my fancy.  I think the biggest hurdle being that I couldn’t figure out the style that I was trying to achieve.  I think our house is traditional in nature, but I kept gravitating towards the contemporary style…..

I originally thought I would spray paint them the same time that I painted the one in our den.  Missed that crazy post….you can catch it HERE.   I nixed that quickly, as I certainly didn’t want to be dangling from an open area trying to tape newspapers around these light fixtures….. hence my search for new ones.

In hindsight I now believe it was user error!  😉   Oh well, my deficiencies and mistakes make for great stories!!

Push came to shove B’s last week home before heading back to school.  I had a list of electrical projects for him to do when he got home last May, and they still hadn’t been done.  Isn’t that always the case!  Procrastination at its finest!!

I put him to work, swapping out an outside spot light that only had one light socket that worked, and fixing a light in our storage room.   While purchasing the lights for these two areas, I gave one last effort trying to find lights for the hallway.  We went to Bargains and Buyouts, keeping my fingers crossed that a fixture would shout out at me (and they would have 2 of them), and then headed off to Lowe’s.  I struck out at both locations!

For the heck of it, I asked him to have a gander at removing the lights on the hallway ceiling.  He also removed the family room ceiling fan, but I will leave that for another time!

Geez Louise, he had no problem at all!!  LOL!  That is why I say it was user error with the den light.  Oh well!  My only thoughts were, “Spray paint here I come”!

This is what it looks like when you unscrew the fixture from the ceiling.  Fascinates me to see the innards of electrical wiring!  Please ignore the dead bug on the left.  Yes, I did get rid of him!!  I also gave the brass and globes a good cleaning before spray painting them.  I have no idea what those 3 orange spots were.  All I can say is that they didn’t smell very pleasant!!

I am not going to go into the specifics, as you can read all about how to do it over at How to Paint an Old {Ugly} Light Fixture.  I used the exact same paint, Rust-Oleum’s Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint!  I was able to skip the primer, as Rust-Oleum has added the primer to the Bronze spray paint.  Wasn’t that nice of them?  Cost about a $1 more, but saves a step and time, so worth it in my book!!

I do want to give you a few precautions and tips for working with electrical wiring:

1. **Important**  Make sure you always turn the power off to the light fixture via your breaker box.  Take it from me, watching our wonderful friend Kurt get the shock of his life when he switched out our kitchen light for us many, many moons ago.  This was way before I became very comfortable working with electric myself.  Hard to believe it used to scare the bejezus out of me!  I can’t stress it enough, flip the circuit switch inside the breaker boxer.  Any doubts….flip all of the switches to the OFF position.  You would hate to be on top of a ladder working with a ‘live’ wire.  Bad things could happen!!
2. Remove the light bulbs.  More than likely you won’t be able to unscrew the light fixture without removing them.
   
3. I am not very good at this one, but I will say practice what I preach….not what I do…….  Wear safety goggles, sturdy shoes, and even add in a face mask for good measure.   My attire leans towards magnifying glasses and either bare feet or flip flops.  Until I find a pair of magnifying safety goggles, I will have to settle for the ‘readers’.  There is no excuse for my shoes, as you never know if you will accidentally drop a globe or light bulb and glass is everywhere.  The goggles and mask are primarily to protect you from the Sheetrock crap that falls out of the ceiling when you are taking it down.
4. When you remove the cover you will see 2-3 wires with caps on them.  You will notice that white is connected to white, black is connected to black, and there is also a copper grounding wire.  I have run across a blue wire also, but it is usually when I am dealing with a ceiling fan that is connected up with a separate switch that controls the light.  In that case….blue connects to the blue!  Put those caps in your pocket, you are going to need them when your light goes back up.
5. Have a second person handy just in case.  Some of these lights can be awkward and/or heavy, aka……our dining room chandelier.  It is the smart idea to have a second set of hands to hold the light fixture while the other is working the wires.

I can’t say that they still don’t remind me of boobs, but it is SOOOOO much better.  I do not feel compelled to buy something new now, not when they look great, and all I used was a 1/2 can of spray paint!!! 😮

What do you think???

Have a great, SAFE weekend everyone!!

                                                 Shaunna

*Updating even more brass light fixtures using Spray Paint may be added to one of these great parties!!

Related posts:

Updating a ceiling fan with a little paint! Freshening up the outside with a little spray paint! How to Paint an Old {Ugly} Light Fixture!