Let There be Light!

I've been on the hunt recently for a "new" lamp at Goodwill.  Some of my family members were a little shocked and dismayed last year when we bought new furniture, matching coffee and end tables, and matching lamps.  It was just a little too....matchy-matchy.  We just weren't entirely comfortable with the "decorator" look and preferred the mismatched look we were used to.

Plus, the new lamps don't light the room very well with their dark shades.  I finally found what I was looking for at GW.

It had a hideous speckled finish, but a nice shape and details.

 I gave it a nice coat of aqua, and tried it out for a couple of days with a cream-colored lampshade.  I wasn't very happy with it because the shade seemed too yellow.  (I'm on the hunt for a white drum shade, though.)

I was trying to figure out how to glaze it and bring out the details without going shopping (again) to buy glaze.  I finally remembered my bin of acrylic craft paint and a little bottle of Extender that I thought would work.  The extender keeps the paint from drying too quickly so you have more "open" time to work with it.

 So, I did this to it.  It was very scary and I was very nervous!  I painted it black and then wiped off most of it.

 I like it much, much better now.  I even think the shade looks a lot better on it!

Sorry the pics are all so bad.  I don't think you can see the full effect in the last photo, but I hope you can see the difference between the plain aqua and the glaze!

Watcha think?

I'm linking up with Melissa at The Inspired Room, today!