Shades of Blue Interiors: Miss Spanish Brass & Crystal Chandelier- Now Visible!

Sorry to those of you who couldn't see this post this morning! I had some technical issues which are now resolved! Thanks to those of you who gave me a heads up! ;)

A few weeks ago I went on a whim, to a resale shop about 30 miles from my house to peruse their furniture supply. I had been there a few times and it was a Saturday (the only day they are open) and I had a couple hours to kill since my son was at a birthday party. This resale shop is in a warehouse type building/barn and there isn't a lot of tidy organization going on. You kinda have to look, and look again, and sometimes look again before you find the cool stuff.

I get overwhelmed at antique malls. There is just TOO MUCH to look at and there are so many things that catch my eye, and they are SO BIG. That and I rarely get to go out without my kids and antique mall shopping with kids = no bueno. So this little resale shop is great for me because it's usually pretty empty and so far I haven't had to spend too much time there with the littles toddling along. Good story, right?

ANYHOW. After passing by this old chandelier about 3 times, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was old, dirty, but had great curves and I could see some serious potential. Only problem was I couldn't see the price anywhere. I finally got around to asking the lady as I was checking out and she said $65. I don't pay that price for hardly anything (home decor related), except for dressers, and I wasn't confident after putting money into it to get it looking proper, I could convince Bruno (my other half) it would be worth it. So I left the store sans chandelier (but found a couple of lovely ceramic vases and 2 wooden barn pulleys).

Later that night I started doing a little research and found these things to be quite pricey! Then I got nervous that someone else already bought it! Good thing they were only open on Saturdays! So the next Saturday, I woke up early and was the first customer in the door. I walked right back to where it sat, picked it up, and bought it. It was in a rather sorry state, I must say:

On my way home, I stopped by a small antique store (that I love, the guy knows me by name now, which is always good! :)) and bought about 20 loose crystals that he had a box of, for $1.50 a piece. They were almost identical and the same size and shape that i needed. It was fate I tell you!

So I got home and started working on cleaning each individual crystal. They had some nasty, sticky grime on them. I used regular windex, since they were glass, and it came off with no major strength exerted! :D

Upon removing each one and cleaning them, I also found out I was missing 4 small crystals (the larger ones hang out on the branches, and the smaller ones are closer to the center). I couldn't find a shop on Etsy that was willing to sell just 4 and I didn't want to buy a ton extra. So I just left off 1 on the inner candles for now (you can barely notice).

I then was able to examine a little closer the details of this chandelier. One of the candle covers was missing (no biggie, I thought, because they don't look expensive) and I found out on the underside of the canopy, the stamp, "Made in Spain"! Score! I was giddy over that discovery! I also saw it had some sticker of approval for the electrical work or something like that. Which made me worry for a minute...

...that maybe this was all too good to be true and the lights no longer worked or something like that. So we got to installing it over a dining table right away.

Turns out, it works great, I hadn't need to fear. Some of the bulbs were broken, so we had to buy new bulbs before we actually tested it, and word to the wise, get the frosted bulbs for chandeliers because this is SO bright! haha, but I like the look of the clear glass, so I haven't switched them out yet.

I also went to Lowe's and bought a pair of new candle covers that were already white. They were slightly on the transparent side, so after I cut a couple inches off of one with a hacksaw (I was only missing one), I took all them off and outside to spray paint them pure white. Much less distracting without that strange bronze/brown faux candle wax drip that was on all the originals.

I really, truly changes the look of the dining room. This may sound silly, but because I have a nicer dining set now, and a pretty chandelier, I actually spend a little more time making sure the table is always clean (almost always) and the floor is swept more often, and the room is looking tidy.