I have been looking at chandeliers for my family room for a long time (maybe 2 years?).  It takes me a long time to make decisions on these kinds of things but when I do, I love what I’ve chosen.  So of course, the one that I drooled over was $15,000.  Not happening. Even the knock off was $1,700.  Better, but still…no.  I was looking for the knock off of the knock off, but it never came, so I switched gears.

Then I started watching Hostages on CBS and saw this chandelier…

and it started me in a new direction.. but I wasn’t sold.  I wanted something more modern looking, less traditional, is that transitional?  Anyway, I started looking on Overstock for something more reasonable.  Then I saw some more photos of inspiration..

and

but this put me into action..Tory Burch’s Office, I’m in love…

So this is my plan, find a chandelier and paint it gold.  Also, I wanted to take advantage of the exposed bulb trend going on right now (like this and this). Of course Hubby was against it.  Why would you buy something and then paint it?  But let’s face it, girls, sometimes that haven’t even designed the things that we want.  So we have to take matters in our own hands.

I finally wore him down.  I found this one at Home Depot.

and this paint, Krylon 18k Gold Plate spray paint.

Then my magic Hubby put his perfectionist in gear.  We took out all the pieces and figured out how to reassemble them so the Chandelier would be the right height.  There were 2 poles that connected to give it a maximum height that was way higher than we need so we took one of the poles out and it gave us the perfect drop from the center beam of our great room.  Then M put pieces of painter’s tape over the bulb sockets before painting.

Pretty easy, right? This is what we have so far with exposed bulbs…

but I was in Target the other day and spied these little lamps for $22 and I might have to add shades to look more like the Tory Burch Chandelier… hmmmm…stay tuned.