Another Light Shade Rescue

Last week I showed you how to line an overhead light shade that I redid because the light would shine right in our eyes on the couch. Well today I have another light shade problem and it is a bit different. This light is another light we purchased to install in our living room. 

My husband and I have quite different tastes but there is a small space where they overlap. It is sometimes quite a struggle to find that small space.

    Me: "Do you like this cabinet? I just adore it!"

    Him, flatly: "No."

    ME: "This one? or How about this one, or this?"

    Him, again flatly: "No, no, no."

    This can go on for awhile and then finally, "That one is ok."

That is about as much enthusiasm as I can raise out of him when it comes to decorating. But he is sure to make it clear when he doesn't like something. 

So I think you can get an idea of what an accomplishment it is when we finally agree on something. I can't even remember how many lights were vetoed before we came to an agreement on this one. It wasn't my favorite, it wasn't his either but we both agreed it was ok. So we brought it home and Frenchie installed it. I really liked it up on the wall, Frenchie...not so much. Once again we crash up against the light in the eyes problem. This light is right above and to the left of his desk. I had to agree when sitting there that it did glare a bit on the eyes. He works at home one day of the week to cut down on the exhaustion of the commute to Switzerland so he needs a comfortable work environment. The light had to go or it had to be fixed.

          I tried cutting out a crescent moon of aluminum foil and sticking it behind the glass to redirect the light a bit. It didn't look too bad but still didn't help much. I would have went for a dimmer bulb but we needed light in that corner so I stewed on it a bit longer and came up with this idea.

I love glass paint. I have played with it for years and done countless windows with it. It's quick, easy and brings beautiful results. I decided to give it a try. I bought these paints off of ebay about 7 years ago. I haven't really done much painting since then and they sat in a box in my studio. I was sure they would be bad but surprise! They were fine. I decided using the opaque snow white, gold and silver would be a perfect fit for this lamp.

First I sketched up a simple moon and star theme on the back of the glass using a fabric chalk pencil. I decided instead of painting the gold smooth for the moon I would give it a textured look. 

Of course I couldn't find my stippling brush anywhere.
(you don't even want to try finding something in my studio right now)
So I took an old brush that was somewhat stiff and stippled away. 

It created quite a few bubbles but I wasn't worried. I planned on fixing that later

Next I went and painted the stars. Now the silver was a bit runny and I didn't have the control I wanted from the tip so I simply put a blob where the center of the star would be and then dragged the paint out to the five points.

 It would seem that dragging the paint with the tip of a pin would be a bit difficult but it isn't. It follows the pin quite easily and makes nice points. Since the surface was curved I had to watch the paint a bit on the bigger stars as it wanted to pool towards the bottom. 

I just took the pin and did the same thing as I did with the points. just moved the paint up towards the top a bit, It starts setting up quickly so I only needed to do this a few times with each big star.

Once the stars were done I filled it in with more stippling. Snow white this time. You can go right up to and even onto the stars if they are dry. After this I redid the gold on the moon and the white one more time to make them thicker. Then when they had set up a bit I went through and poked my pin into the bigger bubbles. They don't pop very easy when the paint is first applied but only take a second when it is a bit set up. Don't wait too long or they will leave noticeable rings.

After this had all set up I flipped the light over and painted the moon and stars on the outside also. I wanted the beautiful gold and silver accents to show but I didn't want real thick layers on the outside which is why I chose to make most of the layers on the inside. 

And there you have it, the finished light!
It has cut down on the glare quite a bit but still gives off plenty of light. I love the gold and silver on the outside. They look quite elegant. This glass paint brand makes a very nice metallic line. They also have a really nice clear glitter that is so fun to use for making snowflakes for your windows in the winter!

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial and are having a good week!

Until next time,