A couple months ago, I found this gorgeous vintage chandelier on Facebook Marketplace for only $25! I knew it needed a little work, but had amazing potential so I brought it home and Nathan hung it up for me. I should mention that this was super nice of him because he had already changed the light fixture in this kitchen twice for me and this new chandelier needed a little extra electrical work to make it functional.
The chandelier was very dusty and grimy so I scrubbed it up and ordered some new candlesticks to replace the old and missing ones. I kind of liked that I had to replace these because I much prefer the more realistic, wax-drip ones.
I knew I'd be changing the lampshades when I bought it and thought I would just thrift some new ones, but when I saw these in person, they were actually really nice quality. Instead, I took some blue toile fabric from a thrifted valence and recovered them.
I've never recovered lampshades before, but through careful trial and error (I only had so much fabric to work with) I made it work and loved the results! I learned a lot and really enjoyed the process too. I've already thrifted another lampshade I plan to recover for a different space.
I finished it off with some french blue and white trim doubling up the bottom for a higher-end look and to hide my fabric mistakes. I could not be happier with how it all turned out! I love a good toile pattern and think it's the perfect shade of blue to complement the blue and white porcelain of my light.
The only thing I'm not crazy about is the edges of my trim, but I did my best with what I was working with and they'll be easy enough to hide once the shades are on the light.
After a lot of learning and experimentation, here's the finished piece! The look as a whole is even better than I imagined when I bought the chandelier and I'm really proud of this makeover even though it isn't perfect.
This chandelier will definitely be a statement piece in our kitchen and it has me so inspired to start the rest of my kitchen makeover and continue making this space ours. I'll be adding a few more blue and white touches elsewhere in here, repainting the walls and cabinets, and adding a plate wall so stick around for more changes soon!
