First, I removed the globe hoping to find a clear alternative but due to the age of the fixture there wasn't any to be found with the right neck-size opening. Then I removed the 20 MeeLLION layers of paint with my trusted friend, Multi-Strip, to reveal a beautiful patina of metal...possibly brass mixed with some other silver metals.
Here's the before and after in the pre-shade state:
We lived with the fixture stripped and globe-bare for many months UNTIL I had a "light bulb" moment. I purchased a lot of 3 vintage metal light fixture shades last year off ebay that were horribly coated with latex paint and chipping, no actually they were shedding they were so bad. I again took my trusted friend, Multi-Strip and behold they too were beautiful underneath all that ugliness. Now, the next step was to figure out how to connect the two parts together. Enter another fav: JB Weld to the rescue!
Here's a test run for alignment.
click on pics to enlarge
I then took the part of the electrical light socket that screws on and JB Welded it to the shade as seen in photo. This way the shade would be secure and easily removed for any possible electrical work in the future. Once the weld was cured (allow at least 15 hours) it was ready to hang. (Mr.1829 helped with this part - remember to ALWAYS turn off power to the outlet.)
Here it is in all its loverly, vintage, industrial, patina'd goodness:
Total cost: $5 (for shade-everything else I had on hand)
What do you think of this repurpose, re-use and marriage of a vintage fixture and shade?
For me it is a perfect match of industrial, farmhouse & thrifty goodness!
