Paint Garage-Sell-Find Lamps

When I was a kid I always liked to do the puzzles on the Sunday comics page of my local newspaper. My favorite was the one that compared two pictures, and you had to pick out the differences. So here is that same kind of puzzle. Can you tell the difference between the two pictures? Keep reading for the answer.

I promised in yesterday's post, about painting the green dressers, that I would give more information about the lamps. A few weeks ago, I just happened to drive by a garage sell in my neighborhood, and I saw two lamps sitting at the end of the driveway.

I bought them for a great price, and then immediately took the lamp shades to a local donation/thrift store. They were not my taste at all, and they were HUGE. I wish now I had taken a picture, but they were this big...

The actual lamps had an interesting shape, and I liked the Greek Key design. The brass finish though was very worn, and needed to be painted over. Following this tutorial, I used this spray paint...

And yes, it was primer. The paint finish on the dressers, that the lamps were going to sit on, was so shiny that I actually wanted a more matte finish on the lamps. The primer delivered that, although it did take two coats of paint and a few touch ups.

I am now a convert to spray paint! It was so fast and easy. Why did I ever use a brush before?

Now did you spot the difference in the two pictures? When I put the first lamp I finished on the dresser, I realized why the original lamp shades were so large. The top part of the lamp was very long and threw off the proportions of a normal-size lampshade.

My husband offered to try to fix it. At first, there was some excited talk from him that he might have to use a sledgehammer. I think he was disappointed when he just had to disconnect the wire off of  the top that holds the light bulb, and pull off the long narrow piece of the lamp.

 I was very impressed with how it looked when he finished. This was such a small change, but it was a great improvement to the lamps.

 

Check out the Link up at Kammy's Korner.



and Savvy Southern Syle, Thrifty Décor Chick, and East Coast Creative