DINING ROOM: Main ceiling light

May 2011 (Update)

I really do love the pendant lamps which I have picked out below but I have decided to have a bit of a rethink for several reasons, we are on a major budget doing up the house as literally every space and every room 

needs doing and it is really starting to dawn on me that thrifty is the way forward, wherever possible at least. Also where the lamp is currently attached to the ceiling is not central to the dining table and therefore it will look silly if we had a pendant lamp in that position. Also long term we are hoping to do a back extension kitchen diner across the whole of the back of the property which will be done to our exact specification and so our choices will not be as limited, and when we do do this the current dining room will become part of the larger living room across the whole of the front of the property and therefore a pendant lamp would not be appropriate any more in any case . And finally, the ceiling is currently in pretty good condition so I don't want to be disturbing it unnecessarily to put in a pendant lamp which won't be right in there in a few years anyway - phew!

So where does this leave us... We had two identical cigarette stained ceiling grotty lamps, one in the dining room and one in the living room. We have taken the one down the one in the living room and replaced it with a far more tasteful Moroccan influence lamp shade and I took the old one along to the carboot with me to sell the other week. But as I was sitting there, watching it not sell, I began to think to myself, how could I upcycle it to make it better. I made the decision then and there that if it didn't end up selling I was going to do it up and make it better so that we could use it in another room when we were ready.


Here's how I went about it...

1. I removed the  glass light shades and put them through the dishwasher... I have got to admit I was blow away by the colour they came out!

I never even knew that the tops of the  glass were see through...thank goodness for dishwashers...they are so good :)

2. So then I was left with the frame...  so I got out my trusty liquorish sample paint and started painting...















3. Then, once it was dry, I put it all back together...

... and voilà! - up-cycled light complete! - Ready to be put up by our electrician.



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I've really fallen for this  Paris Pendant Lamp from Garden Trading:

 

@£45.00

Also like this Luther Glass Pendant Lamp from Next:

@ £22.00 - it's pretty good value for a shade made of glass