Barn Light Repurpose

Hey Everyone! So one of the first things that I demanded we change out when we moved into our home was the dining room light. It was one of those awful, generic, creepy "nipple lights" that gave off this eerie blue glow every time we turned it on.

UGGGGGGGGG WHY?!

Why anyone would put this in a room on purpose is beyond me but I decided this needed to go pronto. Now I have a recent obsession with barn lighting and was really hoping to install a beautiful vintage barn lamp into our new place. These things will knock you back a ton of money though, William Sonoma selling some for as much as $600. Pipe Dream? While perusing one of the greatest stores on Earth, Second Use Building Materials (seriously, if you live in Seattle you need to check this place out), we found this awesome old barn-looking light for $50. YES! Problem? It was very.....brass monkey.

That's a lot of brass

I was so excited when I found it that I immediately sent a picture to all of my family and friends expecting a lot of "WOW HOW COOL" responses. Instead, I got a resounding "wtf, why would you buy that?" Ok, ok, DIYers you know when the time comes to show off your DIY prowess. First off we bought a cheapy canopy kit from Home Depot. When removing ugly wall sconce nipple light things and changing it out with a chained light, you'll need the canopy kit to cover over the hole. You very well may have to swag the light as well. Our nipple light was placed in a really awkward place, between the kitchen and the dining room so in order to have our new light hang directly over our dining room table, we needed to swag it.  Here's a fantastic tutorial on light swagging from Pretty Handy Girl. 

kind of ugly canopy kit, painting can make ugly things pretty

So now to get rid of all that brass! We chose a beautiful rustic copper color to spray paint the light and the ceiling kit (you can pick up this and multitudes of other colors at Home Depot).

Now I know a lot of people will tell you how to make very fancy, upscale spray painting stations, boxes, whatever. We had just moved into our house and were living off of top ramen and cardboard so I wasn't really in the mood the try and figure out where everything was, hence, the very very lame backyard spray painting set-up (AKA packing paper and very fashionable outfits):

pajama pants tucked into socks and work boots, we really know how to do things around here

I just had to get another look at this outfit. I didn't even know he had these things in his closet.

You don't want to spray directly onto whatever you're spray painting. For this lamp, Jason held the can about a foot away to get a clean, even coat. It took two coats to get it to where I wanted it but you can certainly play around with the color (do be careful though of heavier coats without enough drying time, the paint can start to slip and create wrinkles). I'm in love with the finished product and honestly, I actually like the light form better than the crazy expensive ones I've seen online.

So now instead of having a horrid nipple light, shining its creepy blue light down on us, we have a beautiful barn light showering us with a warm glow every night: 

hot cocoa status warm