Almost 2 months after finding this beauty it has finally been installed in our foyer!!  

LOL….that is the text that my Mom received at the end of August!

I was pumped after making my first trip to the ReStore in Cincinnati. 

Have you ever been to the Habitat for Humanity store? Definitely a hit or miss on what you find, but worth the trip if you have one in your area!!

If you have been following this blog, then you know that I have been wanting to trade out our foyer light for years, and have been on the lookout everywhere I go.  I even made it part of my goals for 2014.

Problem is……nothing spoke to me!

If you are going to go thru the effort of revamping your home…..the item should wrap itself around your soul!   At this point in my life, items need to feel right….hence, they must “speak” to me!  I know, I am extremely weird…..tell me something I don’t know.  😉

These would have been too small for our 2 story foyer, but love the open lantern feel!

This was totally the look that I was striving for in our foyer…..staircase and all!  But needed something bigger like this one……

All I can say is “aaaaaaahhhhh”.  Totally makes me swoon!!!!

So when I saw this at the ReStore, I truly felt that I had hit the jackpot!

I had no idea if it worked, but for $33 I was willing to take the chance.  They did tell me I had 30 days to return it, but I knew that after I got done with it, there would be ZERO option of returning it!

People tell me that brass is making a comeback, but in my mind it still dates a home to the 80’s and 90’s, and I do not want it in my foyer.

If you don’t remember what our light looked like let me give you a quick refresher……

Even if I had taken it down and spray painted it, it wasn’t right for the space. 

And yes, I know…..I should have gotten up there a little more often to dust and shine it.  Oh, and then maybe I could have gotten the Easter egg out AND the foam football that the electricians handed to me after they swapped it out.  Dang boys!!  LOL!

The light fixture was super easy to take apart.   I was able to unscrew those little knobs at the top, pull up the octagon placeholder, carefully lift out the individual sheets of glass, and then put it all back together (except for the glass) to spray it all with Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.   I taped plastic bags around each of the electric receptacle, not wanting  ANY paint to mess with it.  After spray painting this and these I was pretty confident that it wouldn’t be an issue!

I had it spray painted, new bulbs purchased and all ready to go within days of purchasing it……only for it to sit for 6 weeks.  {SIGH} 

Our electrician was booked up solid!!!!

So the light got to hang out in the dining room taunting me……..

Especially since I didn’t know if it was going to even work!  I had the inspiration to test it out, taking apart one of the light fixtures flanking the garage, AND IT DIDN’T WORK!  It didn’t have the normal black and white wiring (they were both gold), so I texted B a picture and asked his opinion.  Even following his directions, I couldn’t get it to light up.  At this point I was sweating a few bullets that this $33 light fixture would get the last laugh on me and end up costing me a fortune to rewire it. 

Like I said…..it was taunting me as it sat in the dining room waiting for the expert to take a gander at it!  😉

I just did a double take on the photo above, as it looked like I missed some spots on the underneath carriage of the fixture.  LOL!!  Totally a trick due to the lighting.  PHheeww!!  

Anyway, our electrician’s crew came over last Friday and got it all hooked up.  One of the sockets wouldn’t turn on (that must have been the issue when I tried to hook it up outside), but after a little fiddling it worked like a charm. 

Here is the BEFORE…..

and here is the AFTER!!!

I love the traditional feel of this lantern…..it is open and airy, yet the glass sides give it the “weight” that it needs.  Definitely a keeper!!!

What have you upcycled lately?

                                       Shaunna

Want to see some of the other light fixtures that I was eyeballing?  Head on over to my Pinterest Board ‘Tempting Lighting’!