With so many products being manufactured overseas, backorders 14-16 weeks long are becoming the norm. This is frustrating for everyone but especially for designers and retailers who want a certain item for a particular project and are unable to get it. This just happened to me. I wanted a pair of Aidan Gray lamps to use in the Florida job but could only find one even though I called countless retailers hoping they had one on the floor. When this happens I pray a lot and then get very creative! My daughter lives in a city that has a great consignment shop and I visit them often. On my last visit I found a lamp that was very similar in style to the lamp that I was looking for but its awful red and gold finish made the poor baby a rather ugly duckling. Lucky for me it made the price VERY attractive at $48.
You can see the lamp I wanted in the foreground and its poor relation behind it.
Making this duo come together as a happy couple required nothing more than a little dry brushing technique and some patience.
Dry brushing is exactly what its name implies. You take your brush and apply the tiniest amount of paint possible (I used latex house paint) then brush back and forth on a piece of paper to remove most of what you just applied then you are ready to paint.
With a light hand scrub the brush back and forth across the lamp with horizontal strokes allowing the raised areas to grab the paint. For some projects this is all that you need to do. However, for this one I was trying to match the antiqued finish of the other lamp so I began to layer different colors in order to achieve a build up of colors and texture that added depth to the finished project. Starting with a soft gray ( you can see this color going on) I next added a very light layer of black then randomly hit some areas with a soft white and finished with a little bit of metallic silver which I then polished.
Add a matching linen drum shade and…..
voila!
The look of a $300 lamp for your time and the cost of the shade.
If you want to say, “That was fun!” at the end of your project contact me at www.cindybarganier.com.
Rhoda @Southern Hospitality
Hi, Cindy, so nice to meet you! Thanks for stopping by. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking back at your posts. That Watercolor house is just gorgeous, you do great work. I lived in B’ham for 5 years & just moved back to my hometown of Marietta. Do you happen to be related to Steven & Molly Barganier? good friends of mine from B’ham! that is an unusual name, so there is a good chance you are related.
Hope you’ll drop in again!
Rhoda
Cindy Barganier
Rhoda,
We were on vacation when your comment came in so I am just getting back to you. Thanks so much for the complement. It means a lot.The Watercolor project was a ton of fun! So, you have stumped me. We do have family in B’ham- Paul, Karen, Joy, Cale,etc but Steven and Molly I don’t know! hmmm Maybe you will have to make an intro. … long lost cousins or something. LOL.