I Love The 80s!

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Posted by Michael, July 22nd, 2011

By the title of this entry, I clearly got a kick out of Leslie telling us that special parts of her first home screams, “I was designed in the 80s!”  However, I cannot believe the 80s are actually coming back into style.  Damn you Justin Bieber, damn you!

Anyways, today’s guest poster is Leslie from Frugal Nashville.  When I was very little, we vacationed in Tennessee and I believe we spent some time in Memphis as well as Nashville.  I remember LOVING, and OBSESSING OVER, Tennessee. Sadly, that’s all I remember about our trip — besides doing the Elvis thing and getting a tour of the Jack Daniels distillery.  Why I remember the JD part, I have no idea.  Perhaps it explains why I’m always shot-happy when we have people over.

Enough with the rambling (see what happens when Rebecca allows me to run this ship for a night?).  Frugal Nashville is here to tell us about everyone’s favorite standard builder-grade lighting!

 

Many thanks to Rebecca for the opportunity to guest post!  I’m a big fan of this blog and am super excited to be sharing with you.

My hubs and I closed on our first home nearly three months ago.  Now that we’re homeowners, it seems like most of my free time is devoted to working on, thinking about, and planning for house projects. Our home was built in 1990, so there are some special touches that really scream “I was designed in the 80s!” still hanging around.  Like these:

Brass blobby builder lights!

Wow, are they ugly.  (And so was that original paint color).  Thanks to the vaulted ceiling in the foyer, we even have one of these lights installed at a bizarre angle over the staircase.  Changing this light bulb is a challenge involving monkey-like climbing skills.

Ugly and impractical, for the win!  While eventually I’d love to have recessed lighting in these spots, for now I just wanted a simple, budget-friendly improvement.  So I went for my trusty old pal, spray paint.

A couple of weeks ago, I used Rustoleum paint in Satin Nickel to paint a gold mirror frame and was pretty impressed with the results. After that success, I decided to go the same route with these cheapo light fixtures.  The hubs disassembled and disconnected the lights, and after covering and taping off the sockets, I applied three thin coats of the silver paint.

A couple of hours later, here’s what we had:

Much better, right?  And all for about $9.00.  It’s not the perfect long-term solution, but I’m perfectly happy with it for now.  And just in time for our housewarming party in a couple of weeks, too.  Can’t wait to show off the progress to our friends!

 
How awesome is that entryway? So grand looking! Spray paint is a great inexpensive way to fix those brassy fixtures we’ve all be cursed with at one time or another. Special thanks to Leslie for sharing her space with us and helping us out this week!

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4 Responses to “I Love The 80s!”

  1. […] so excited to be guest posting over at The Lil House That Could!  Head over there to check my little addition to their DIY home decor stories.  I’m a big […]

  2. Always happy to hear about somebody else LOVING and OBSESSING OVER Tennessee — I feel the same way! Thanks again for having me!

  3. Lisa says:

    Couldn’t agree with you more on banishing brass for silver/nickle/chrome. I did that too – and I was remodeling in the early 90s:).

  4. fiesta says:

    Heya we’re for your principal occasion right here. I stumbled upon this kind of plank so i to find It truly valuable & the item solved the problem outside much. I’m hoping to produce a very important factor backside in addition to guide others such as you aided me personally.

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