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Home › Our houses › The Victorian

A free upgrade for a drab light fixture

July 9, 2014by Christina
We found a super-simple way to upgrade a light fixture we didn't like. Turns out, the brown was just paint, and it was easily removed!

When we moved in, the house had a dreaded boob light in the hallway.  (Update: see the hallway makeover here.) We quickly replaced it with this light:

Brown painted ceiling light

It was only a few dollars at an architectural salvage store.  (It’s not old though, they are still selling it at the home improvement store for about $75.)  We picked it up because it was only a few dollars and it was better than the builder-grade ugly thing.

I’ve been wanting to replace it for a couple years with something that’s more our style, but haven’t…lighting is expensive! And finding one that’s your style second-hand can take years, literally. 

To tide us over until then, I sanded off the dull, dirty yellow finish it had.

sanding-paint-off-glass-light

I was hopeful that it was just paint, and it was! So with a very coarse sanding block, I sanded the paint right off the glass fixture.

The sanding took a while, but it was easy of course, and it was a free upper body workout.  That glass piece is a lot bigger than it looks when you’re trying to hold it and sand it.

Just put on a podcast and sand away.

If you test this on your light fixture and find that it isn’t a flat-finish paint as ours was, you can always spray paint the outside of it. Of course, depending on your fixture, you could lose a little of the light that comes through the fixture, but it might be worth it!

Once the sanding was done, I gave it a good wash in the kitchen sink and it looked like it had always been white.

white glass ceiling light

To our surprise, we actually like it now.  As in, we are totally fine with giving up the search for a new one and keeping it. It was subtle, but removing the paint from the light fixture made such a big difference.

white hallway with brown light fixture next to the same hallway with a white light fixture

We have a thing for making over or making lighting, check out or other ideas here.

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Tags: lighting, mini projects

Free slate trays

The hallway before-and-after

About Christina

I'm a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

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  1. [email protected]

    It makes a huge difference according to me! I didn’t realy like your light fixture, but now it so much lighter! Lovely! Keep it!

    Reply
    • Christina

      Thanks, Magali! I think we might just keep it. 🙂

  2. Leena

    Wow what a difference. The feel is so much better now, more simple, just better.

    Reply
    • Christina

      I was surprised at how different too.

  3. Michelle

    I’ve done this with a couple of shades but, I scrubbed off the paint with a steel wool pad and a sink of fairly hot water. The lights seem so much brighter. Yours look great too.

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Christina.

Little Victorian is your place for inspiration, education, and encouragement for how to be your own interior designer and decorator, and how to carry out your big plans yourself too.

It starts with psychology, then artistry, and ends with power tools. None of those are scary, and you really can do it.

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See more from:

The Victorian

Dining room update & a new project coming soon

The hallway before-and-after

A free upgrade for a drab light fixture

Black doors and windows

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