I began my kitchen makeover 9 months ago, and I’m still not done!  Yikes that’s pretty bad, isn’t it.  I’ve painted the cabinets, changed the hardware, made curtains, added corbels and today I finished the light fixture.  I still want to change the counter top, flooring, move some of the cabinetry around and tile the back splash.  But until we can find the money to do so, I think we’ll just call this kitchen makeover complete for now.  So once I can find the time to actually clean the kitchen, I’ll post some pictures.

But for now I’ll show you a sneak peek at my sunny yellow farmhouse light that I made over for just $10.  I couldn’t be more happy with it.

I spent a couple of months searching for an antique porcelain farmhouse light like this one.

I actually found one that wasn’t outrageously prices (only $50) at a small antique shop, but it needed to be completely rewired.  In our last home I replaced all of our lighting with vintage lights, picked up at thrift stores, and had them all rewired.  You can normally do this for $30 a light.  But at $80 total this was still out of the question.

Next I thought I would make a wire basket light like the one above.  I am totally all over these lights right now.  I was originally inspired by Ashley’s (from Under The Sycamore Tree) wire basket light, find tutorial here.  But I could not find a basket that I like/would work.

So on a trip to the ReStore I found this ugly little guy that I knew would be just perfect.  Partly because he was only $10.  Look how brassy and glorious he is.

I wanted to paint him a teal blue, like the one above from Barn Light Electric.  But I already had a can of sunny yellow spray paint leftover from another project. Remember how cheap I am?

So this is how I finally made my light…

First take the wires out from the chain.  Just pull them through each of the chains.  Really easy.  Next put all those wires into a plastic bag and tape it completely shut.  You don’t want to spray paint the wires.

I used Rust-Oleum metal primer first.  I started to spray it and then realized that if I left the metal chain on the ground it would leave a mark of the chain.  So I used a bucket to stick the chain in while I sprayed the light. It just kept the chain from laying on top of the newly painted light.

After 2 coats of primer I sprayed on many light coats (about 10) of Valspar’s “Gloss Gold-85010″ spray paint.

I painted the chain with Rust-Oleum Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  I used an old cereal box to block any of the spray paint from getting on the newly painted yellow light.

Now the part my husband hates.  I mean hates.  I’ve made him change a lot of lights in the past so I don’t blame him for hating this so much.  But he did it for me like a champ.  Now that’s love isn’t it?

Aren’t home improvement projects with kids so much fun.

So here is the before and after!

I don’t even know why builders bother putting in these ridiculously tiny lights.  I much prefer my $10 sunny yellow farmhouse pendant light.

I know a yellow light isn’t for everyone, but it makes me smile.  And its way better than that teeny tiny light that was there before.