Project Idea - Decorating an old light frame

This old light fixture from the seventies certainly lacked luster and appeal but rather than replace it, we gave it a Crafty Jenny makeover.

What we used to decorate:
A little antique gold leaf paint
Lots of old glass beads and pearl beads
Some reflective pieces of glass from a mosaic craft store
Some good wire mesh
A very good quality gem adhesive
Thin wire

Tools we used:
Cutting pliers
Paint brush
Masking tape

The first thing we did was to remove the glass panels from the fixture then mask around the top where it met the ceiling. We gave it two coats of antique gold leaf paint, allowing 24 hours drying time between coats.

Using the glass panels for a size guide we then cut out 8 panels of wire mesh, making sure we cut in the middle of the squares so we had enough wire to attach the beads to around the edges. We cut the mesh into oblongs. The wire was also given 2 coats of paint.

Once dry, we began to glue our beading around the edges. We had to trim back as we didn't want wire sticking out of beads, but you could leave it untrimmed if you wished. We placed the beads in random order to make it look more informal.

Once all the edges were done, we then placed beads on all the joins in the net.

We also painted eight lengths of wire and once dry, we threaded beads onto the lengths and then placed them in the space between each panel.

Each decorated mesh panel was then connected to the fixture by a loop at the top and hot glued at the bottom. This was where the glass panels were originally screwed to, so it was very useful for reconnecting the mesh.

There are four light bulb fittings for this light, so when you remove each bulbs you can remove its casement and decorate it, too, if you like. We painted and decorated the casements by gluing pearls around the bottom edge.

This was done simply by placing the casement on a piece of plastic then applying lots of glue all around the base and placing the beads right the way around. Leave overnight and next day you can just pull the plastic away, leaving the beads glued to the casement.

We then applied more glue and sprinkled some small fine beads all around the rest of the casement.

Finally, we used pretty light bulbs in the shape of a candle which just finished off our revamped light fixture perfectly.