Saturday, December 15, 2007

Wall Lights Anyone?

We went on an antique mall excursion last weekend and scored 4 wall sconce lights that were in dire need of some TLC (tender loving care for the overseas visitors). Three of the lights are matched so we have a pair and a spare. The fourth one doesn't go with anything and was already stripped of paint and missing some parts. That is the one we want to keep of course though I have no idea where we can put it without putting in a new electric line and wall box. The set of three looked like this and I have already done my painting magic on the third.



Any way, I am in the process of stripping the last two and I have some light parts on order to refinish these (and to complete the "Steampunk" ones that I threatened to make a few weeks back). I have to replace the switches and have already rewired and soldered the original plug outlets so that they can be used. The patent on the back of the plug is pictured below and gives us an earliest date of 1928 though the cream color and sprayed flowers of the originals wreak of the 1930s when bright colors could be manufactured cheaply and thus were in "Vogue".



Here is what I have done with the one that I have painted. I plan to do the same to the other two.



There is no reason why we need to keep these. We have all the wall lights we will ever need for this place. If anyone is interested in these let me know. I will consider any reasonable offer otherwise they will go on ebay and you can take your chances. They will all be finished and ready to install in the next couple of weeks. I am waiting on parts. I can forward pictures to interested parties when the things are done.
For those DIY people who want to know exacly how I painted these you can leave a comment and if there is any interest I will type up a post and maybe show a picture of the light we are keeping!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ja, sure. Would love to know how you make the painted fixtures look so good.

just me... said...

Gary,

that looks GREAT. What did you use?