Do you ever one of those DIY momenst in which you're conflicted whether your current project is completely ridiculous or downright genius?
Believe me, this is a common occurrence around here in my quest to decorate for less. I'm continually rethinking the appearance, function, and arrangement of everything in this house, and quite frankly, there are times I get a wild hair and go kinda crazy.
Yesterday's project was one of those for me. I simply couldn't stop myself. I had coffee...I had a light fixture....and I had about 10 minutes to attempt something marvelous.
Or ridiculous.
Shortly after we moved in I purchased this Mariestad Chandelier from Ballard Designs for our dining area. If you've read my blog for long, you know I hate spending full-price on light fixtures, preferring instead to find old ones at thrift stores or on craigslist and repurpose them, but I simply fell in love with this one and couldn't find anything else comparable, so....Cha-ching!
I could've done without the black cord (why, oh why, Ballard?). I purchased the white shades at Lowe's since Ballard shades are a bit too spendy for me, and I intended to add trim or ruffles later to personalize them a bit.
Well, that was two years ago. Yesterday I decided they've looked naked and white for too long.
Enter the coffee pot. Excited now, I brewed a rather weak pot of coffee (which truly goes against everything in my being) and poured it into a bowl.
To make sure the shades were clean prior to their coffee bath, I brushed each one with a special lampshade sponge I found at Fred Meyer to remove dust and residue. This little thing works like a charm.
Next, I simply dipped each shade into the coffee....
...rolled it all the way around....
...and ta-da!....a warmer, softer, beigish-ivory chandy shade.
It didn't take long for my ever-present helper (fresh from a shower and still in her ~ wait ~ Christmas jammies?? Is there a mother in the house?) to try a hand at coffee dipping. Who could resist dipping lampshades in coffee, after all?
In less than five minutes, all 12 lampshades were a lovely shade of creamy linen.
In another five minutes, they were back in place and looking so much warmer...and so less naked.
We're not too concerned about the lingering coffee smell since we kinda like coffee around here.
Okay, not really.
The lingering coffee smell I mean. We DO really like coffee around here.
A lot.
Happy Weekend!
Jaimee
Labels: Dining, Light Fixtures, Projects
