Pink Bathroom Chronicles: Vanity Light

Catch up!
Part ONE: Medicine Cabinet
Part TWO: Cabinet Demolition
Part THREE: Shelves

I've avoided including the bathroom vanity light in my photos up to this point because, you guys....it is disgusting.

Disclaimer:

DISGUSTING

Ready?
...
Don't have any food or drink in your mouth....
...
Okay here we go....

Wait, it gets worse...

Don't hate me. I warned you.

As you might have deduced, I wanted to replace those lights immediately. At this point, I had about $18 left of the $100 budget my landlady had given me, so online shopping I went. Craiglist failed to produce anything under $20, and the big box stores were even worse. For something halfway decent-looking, I was expected to spend between $30-70!

Then I started thinking, what about that inexpensive, magical cure-all, holy patron saint of do-it-yourselfers: spray paint? That's when I googled and found this blog where the author has almost the EXACT same light fixture and did exactly what I was thinking about doing to it!

I grabbed a can of metallic Rustoleum (stops rust!) spray paint at the hardware store, but failed to find a good deal on glass lamp shades. The old ones can stay for now.

(By the way, if you spray paint anything ever, you should most definitely have one of these attachable grips. Your hands will thank you.)

I started by taking down the light fixture (cutting power to the bathroom to be safe) and taping off the threads. Then I sanded off all the rust, which was a task I had seriously underestimated because it took about 30 minutes and a lot of elbow grease. Once I got that all smooth, I wiped it clean and got ready for paint. Below is a picture mid-paint because I forgot to take a photo of my freshly sanded surface. You get the idea.

Few things are more satisfying than a nice smooth coat of spray paint.

I chose not to use primer for a couple of reasons. Firstly, my can of primer did not sport the "stops rust!" badge, and I really did not want the rust to come back. Secondly, I like instant gratification and I wanted to see the shiny results right away.

When I went to install it (again, cut that electrical), I decided to flip it upside down because I never liked seeing those spiral florescent bulbs. 

This had an interesting effect on the bathroom, which Boyfriend noticed immediately when he turned on the lights. Pointing the bulbs upwards created more ambient light around the room and brightened up the ceiling, making the room seem bigger and higher. This was a big deal for our tiny bathroom.

So that's how I updated our disgusting vanity light for the cost of a $6 can of spray paint!

I'm ALMOST done with this bathroom. I've been putting the finishing touches on the shelves and accessories, so look forward to the big reveal in the next post!