Vintage Gold Kitchen Accent Lamp
This story started out in the thrift store with a happy little accident.
I bought a little Zara lamp that was 75% off. It ended up to be only $2.00 and it was brand new.
I wanted a cute little lamp for my kitchen to use as a small accent light.
The lamp didn't have a shade but it did have a beautiful fabric cord with a switch so I figured I could work out something when I got home.
See what happened....
The lamp I bought was the perfect size and color for my kitchen but I wasn't 5 minutes out of the thrift store when I realized that this lamp had a very different socket than what I needed.
As you're reading through this post please pay attention to the bold blue links that will take you to more information and the products I used for this project. Also the READ MORE sections will take you to related Homeroad projects.
I brought the lamp home for closer examination and realized that it was never going to fit the vintage looking Edison bulb I wanted to use in it. I'm already using these bulbs all over my kitchen.
The fact that I didn't have a shade for it was a far lesser problem now. The Edison bulb was a no go!
I searched the garage for light bulbs, I was trying to figure out a solution before I just plopped this lamp into my own donation box and sent it back to the thrift store.
I found a small light with a vintage glow that came from my outdoor gazebo lights so I gave it a try.
The little round bulb fit, the lamp was really only meant to hold a 7 watt bulb. Ugh! Now what?
Well it was then I remembered a gorgeous light that I saw on one of my favorite blogs Deb and Danelle. Danelle had a beautiful accent light on her coffee bar which was similar in shape to the one I bought. Her lamp also had a chandelier light in the top with no shade! It was very popular with her readers!
Bingo! This is exactly the inspiration I needed to save this little lamp from going back to the thrift store!
I searched Amazon for a chandelier light that would fit my lamp and ordered one to be delivered tomorrow! If you have a regular sized light socket Amazon has a gorgeous light bulb like the one in Danelle's lamp that I would have used in a second!
How to get a vintage brass look with paint:
In the mean time I brought my lamp down to the workshop and began the job of painting it. I decided to use a slightly different color on my lamp than the inspiration lamp.
I'm using Fusion Mineral Paint in Coal Black. This is a matte black paint that is slightly thick from being around for a while. For this project that was going to be perfect!
I gave the lamp one coat of the black paint and dried it with a hair dryer.
Then I gave it another coat of the black paint being sure to leave brush marks all over the lamp going in all different directions for texture. Just to be clear, Fusion Mineral Paint is usually self leveling and will not leave brush strokes but my paint was old and thick so it left great ones!
This lamp would look great even if I left it black at this point but I had another idea...
When the black paint dried I grabbed my Rub and Buff in Gold Leaf and brushed the gold all over the lamp in random strokes with a soft brush.
I was sure to let some of the black show through the gold so it looked like old brass. You can see the beautiful texture!
I even made the top of the lamp gold because now I am not planning on using a lamp shade.
I let the Rub and Buff dry for a while then tested out the bulb I had to be sure I was getting the look I wanted.
Yep! This was going to work. If it looked good now, it was going to look great with the new chandelier light bulb!
By the way if you wanted to put a shade on a light bulb like this and stop right here, they make clip on lampshade adapters that turn a regular lampshade into one that will clip to a bulb. Also this black shade with a gold inside clips right to a small bulb too. I love the look but not the price!
READ MORE: REPURPOSED LAMP IDEAS
And when the bulb finally came, I was right!
Please pin for later --->>
And this is not the end of the gold lamp story... the very next day while visiting yet another thrift store I found a little bird lamp. It was the perfect size, already almost gold, it took a regular sized light bulb... and it had a shade!
Well don't you know I gave it a quick coat of gold Rub and Buff just like the first lamp and popped in my vintage Edison bulb!
Now I'll have a cute gold accent lamp for the other side of the kitchen. With or without the shade this was a very strange thrifting coincidence!
My kitchen accent lights look amazing and similar to the lamp Danelle put together which was my inspiration piece before things with my original lamp went so wrong!
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