Transform a Chandelier

 Hello Readers. My neighborhood has a habit of leaving items at the end of their driveways for neighbors to take if they want. I love it. I found a ceiling medallion on one of my daily walks and brought it home. I thought I could use it to transform my plain kitchen light into a fun focal point. 

Before and after.

I thought it would be a fun idea to add a ceiling medallion to my chandelier. It would look fabulous. I cleaned my medallion well with detergent to remove any dirt or grime. I made sure it was thoroughly dry. I knew I wanted to paint it and this cleaning would help the paint adhere to the medallion.

As I said I got my medallion from a neighbor. It was aged and yellowed. It needed some TLC.  It was plastic so I used some acrylic paint to make it white again. My chandelier was white so I thought my medallion should be white as well. You can buy these medallions new from hardware/lighting stores and also from Amazon.

I painted the front of the medallion all over and wiggled the paint brush to get the bristles into the little crevices. I really wanted to cover all the yellow. This took a while but it was not difficult. I let it dry over night.

I shut off the electricity and had a handy men take the chandelier down. The chandelier had to come down from the ceiling to put the medallion up. Once I had it all in front of me like this I had a thought... Why was I sticking with white? I could do any color I wanted.

I decided to start over and go for something dramatic. I bought some glossy "Real Blue" acrylic paint.

Because the chandelier was disconnected from the electricity, I start by cleaning the chandelier. It was dirty and dusty. Paint would never stick to it like this. I cleaned it up and let it dry over night. Paint wouldn't stick well to if it was wet. 

I took the light bulbs out and wrapped plastic wrap around the "candles" of the chandelier. I didn't want to paint them blue. The plastic wrap stayed on pretty well and it would keep the candle parts white.

I started painting again. I painted the medallion again and made sure to wiggle the paint brush so the bristles would get into all the small spaces. I let the paint dry over night again.

The white was a little difficult to hide with the blue paint. It just didn't want to disappear. It took 3 full coats of paint to paint the medallion blue. I made sure to let it dry in between coats of paint.

I started painting the chandelier with the same glossy blue paint that I had used on the medallion. I set the chandelier upside down on newspapers and just started painting. I worked my way around the different sections and let it dry over night. It took 3 coats of paint to cover the white paint on the chandelier as well. 

I had to go back and touch up some spots that I missed. 

I made sure the electricity was shut off and I had a handy man hang everything up for me. The medallion went up first. It was very light weight plastic. The wiring came out through the center of the medallion to connect to the chandelier. 

 

I noticed some places that needed to be touched up during the hanging process. 

I kept the electricity off and I was able to touch up those spots after it was hung back up. I let it dry as it was hanging there. No one touched it so it was fine.

It turned out really well. I liked the pop of the bold blue color in my kitchen dining area. It was a fun addition to the room. There was already a lot of blue, which is why I chose that color. Adding the medallion along with the bold paint color gives it more visual impact.

 

I really like blue but you can choose any color you like. Thanks for reading along, now go make something fun for yourself. 

***Year End Update***- I love this light fixture! It turned out great.