I am making steady progress on my dining room makeover. The chairs are all finished up, and my former chairs have gone to a good home (thanks Patty!)
I’ve removed the bad IKEA lights that were hanging over the table.
For now I have replaced them with a funky junky lamp of my own devising. I purchased a fab old lamp shade skeleton at the Round Barn’s going out of business sale. Then I used some simple wiring supplies from my local Ace Hardware to make my own hanging fixture.
I simply threaded the cord through the opening at the top of the shade where normally the shade would attach to a harp. I wired it to the pull chain socket, screwed in the bulb and voila!
I hung the light from an old pulley that I had in my “stash of stuff I want to use someday” (you all have one of those, right?).
I’d love to now brag about how cheap this project was and how I came up with this cool lamp for less than $20, but that ain’t the case. I spent around $25 on the electrical parts, plus another $30 or so for the shade. You can’t really tell in the photos, but that lamp shade is 2′ across.
Next up, an amazing hutch that I picked up last Friday. I think it’s going to be perfect for the room. I got it painted on Saturday, but yesterday we went to the zoo with my sister and niece, so I didn’t get it waxed yet.
And yes, we were wearing jackets in August. It was only in the 60’s here yesterday. It was a perfect day for the zoo. No crowds.
Lots of great animals to see.
It was a great break from painting furniture! But I’m back at it today and hope to share my finished hutch with you soon!
q is for quandie 
Chairs are smashing love the scale of the light and yes I do have a pulley too!
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You never know when you might find a use for a fab old pulley!
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Love the chairs. Last night I wrote a great comment for the chippy post, but as I’ve said before I can’t leave them when I’m on the ipad. SO I came this morning and you had a new post, but you only get one comment and a pin.
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Ha! A one comment limit huh? Thanks Bliss!
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Your dinning room chairs are gorgeous and I love your fixture! Glad you are back painting-I love your pieces!
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Stay tuned because this next painted piece is a giant!
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…now see, I always love the furniture etc. pics…..this am tho I’m really liking the animal pics. First post I read this morning and those guys made me smile! Thx.
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Yeah! I’m glad you liked the animal pics. I threw them in at the last minute while thinking to myself “no one is going to care about these animal pics, but I’m going to add them anyway!” So I’m glad they made you smile!
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Love the new fixture…you would have paid a fortune to buy one like it! We went to out to the zoo last week, too…always fun!
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Thanks Linda! I hadn’t been to the MN Zoo in ages. We go to Como a little more often. I was very impressed by the “Russia’s Grizzly Coast” exhibit, despite the lack an any actual Grizzly Bears on display (they aren’t on display after cracking the glass with a rock back in July, yikes!).
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Great chairs! I have two shadeless lamp shades in my home. Love them but nobody gets it but me. On well.
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Well, I get it! We lampshade skeleton lovers have to stick together!
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Love the old lampshade re-use! I’m going to show that photo to my husband so he knows I’m not the only nutty one in town!😄 Is that a pull chain? You need a handy remote for that. Can’t wait to see more photos…..
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Yep, I used a socket with a pull chain since this is just wired to an outlet without a wall switch. Works great!
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Love the ongoing transformation of your dining room. Now a celebration toast will be in order soon, hint hint. We can bring the wine!! By the way, the Portland Vancouver area is blasting hot!! But no humidity & a small breeze. Just sayin’
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Definitely not blasting hot here! Had my jacket out again yesterday. Also had to dig out the sweatshirts already. Sigh. Summer is ending way to soon.
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This has nothing to do with today’s post (which I thoroughly enjoyed), but I had to tell you that after reading your post about the difference in the colors of the dark waxes, I ordered some MMS antiquing wax. That wax is going to rock my world! Not to mention allow me to finish my dining room. I have a sideboard that I wanted to paint Aubusson, but I wasn’t happy with the dark wax I had. My paint colors are too fresh for the brown wax. The MMS over the Aubusson does the trick. I didn’t want every piece I have in my dining room to be Paris Gray.
So, thank you. You are my world’s favorite person today. My husband thinks I need to get a life, that nobody should be this excited over wax. He just doesn’t get it.
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Wel, I get it, but it still doesn’t help. 😉
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Hey, that makes my day. I’m glad to be someone’s favorite person today! I remember being initially surprised by how different the colors were for the various waxes. I do love that Annie Sloan Aubusson! I bet that is going to add a gorgeous pop of color and work beautifully with the Paris Grey.
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