One thing our house has plenty of is globe light fixtures. People seem to love 'em or hate 'em. (A recent commenter said they've just removed them all from their house). As for me, I don't mind them and they fit the house. We had 5 globe sconces in our hallway areas, 1 large one in the office, and 3 sconces outside. They were all brass finish, and I decided to update them by changing their color.
Before....... and after:
I used Rustoleum's Universal Metallic spray paint in oil-rubbed bronze. They will match the hardware we are eventually putting on all the doors in the house. I just love the contrast and think they look much more modern.
As a side note, sorry about the gross-looking walls. It is wallpaper glue and another project I'm working on.
In the photo above you can see a section of wall I have scrubbed next to a section I haven't. This job has been TEDIOUS as it requires a lot of elbow grease and water changes every 10 minutes. I've slowly been chipping away at it over the past couple of weeks. Although this wallpaper came down easy, I find the paper-backed type easier to remove because it doesn't leave this glue residue. After the glue is off we will have to do lots of sanding and patching before the walls can be painted.
Back to lights—
A funny story: As you know, one of the light fixtures I was considering was a giant drum shade. My toughest critic (Mom) wasn't sold on the size so I decided to mock it up with cardboard and paper and hang it from the kitchen ceiling. (Still not sold). Nevertheless, the mock-up came in handy:
I flipped it over and used it as a spray booth!
The photo above gives you a closer look at the finish. When the light shines on it the finish looks more bronze and metallic, but in shadow it looks darker. In any case, I would highly recommend this paint. It is a simple transformation and only required a good cleaning and light sanding before I applied 3 light coats of paint. By the way, slightly more than one can of paint covered all of my fixtures so it was a very inexpensive update.
The outdoor fixtures saw the biggest improvement. They were filthy and oxidized. A thorough cleaning and sanding was required and the paint job isn't perfect, but they look a thousand times better.
Unfortunately, this is a construction zone and there are sometimes casualties:
The fixture on the left was scratched so I had to touch it up (thus the wet paint)—no big deal—but the one on the right... well, I'm off to shop for a new globe. Hopefully it won't be too hard to find one that will fit. When we get them installed, and when we get our new front door installed (this week hopefully!) I will post photos.
The black stuff on the floor in the photo above is carpet glue. The hall and kitchen carpet is all scraped up and gone! Two layers of it. Yes! Soon cement board will be going down and then tile. If only the guys weren't off playing, I mean, hauling peas to the elevator.