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Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Porch Light: Before and After

The porch light is nothing special. It's also nothing we would have picked out. Replacing it was very low on the priority list...until I painted the door.

I was all ready to replace the fixture when I found one I liked at the HD. The mounting plate on the fixture was rectangular, and the box for the fixture was circular and stuck off the house by almost 2 inches. I decided to just spray paint our existing fixture with the oil rubbed bronze spray paint we already had.

Little did we know until we were at the other home improvement big box store that we could replace that large circular box with a small circular box that would easily fit inside a new mounting plate whether it be circular or rectangular. And porch lights are pretty inexpensive, so we left the store with a new $20 lamp.

But I had an uneasy feeling. The lamp was nice, but it wasn't what I'd imagined. Nate liked it, but I decided to return it and save the money towards a higher quality replacement sometime down the road. For now, spray paint will work. I decided that the glass would look better if it were cloudy and we couldn't see the light bulb. So I paid $6 for another can of spray paint that gives glass an etched appearance.

Blah, blah, blah, too much talking. Here are the pictures.
Before. Cobwebs and all.
After.
Before.
After.
Cleaned and prepped to paint.
Cleaned and ready to paint.
After a couple of thin coats.
Cloudy glass makes a big difference.




19 comments:

  1. I can't even tell you how much I love this post! I'm so excited!! I HATE our outdoor lights and I've NEVER thought to paint them. Duh! Here's hoping I can tackle this project before the rain hits. It makes such a huge impact. Pinning!

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    1. I should mention that this light is completely protected from weather, except for a little bit of early morning direct sunlight. If your lights are exposed, there might be a better paint to use or some sort of top coat to consider!

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  2. Much better...and inexpensively done, which is the best part.

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    1. Thanks! Cheap and easy is how I like my...um...nevermind.

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  3. I like the cloudy glass a lot!

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    1. I'm so glad we did that. It really made a big difference.

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  4. ooo i like that you changed the glass too. now it looks fresh!

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    1. Yes! I painted the inside of the glass thinking I could still clean the outside without the paint scraping off. It makes it kind of shiny, too.

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  5. Oh Wow, it looks like a brand new light! I love it! And the cloudy glass is so great. I really like that you don't see the bulb!

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    1. It's kind of funny, because we splurged ($13 yikes) on a "nice" LED bulb. But I'm glad we painted the glass anyway.

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  6. love the transformation - I did the black/cloudy glass spray paint on a bunch of old 70s fixtures in my house too and it is such.a.money.saver. What I especially like about your transformation is the extra plate of wood - it really classes up the appearance. Can you talk a little about the process of adding that piece? thanks so much!

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    1. The professional way to handle that would have been to cut out the siding just so that the wooden plate fit flush with the thickest part of the siding. We didn't want to go through the trouble of that, so we just mounted it on the outside of the siding. We will paint it when we get the trim paint out for a few other touch-ups, probably next month.

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  7. At the risk of sounding dramatic, you've sort of changed my life by introducing me to cloudy glass spray paint. I hate looking at our crappy CFL bulbs and this sounds like such an easy fix!

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    1. It was definitely easy! And it actually looks better than I imagined. I also like that the light is softer - it had such a glare before.

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  8. Wow that is a amazing. I wouldn't have guessed it was the same lamp. I love the glass idea.

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    1. I think without the glass being done it would have just been ok, but this is WAY better than it was!

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  9. That one is better! Is it your only porch light? I know exterior lighting is not in your priority list but you can just purchase a cheap lamp and DIY the design. It's all about creativity and resourcefulness. You can search online for ideas and steps. Allison @ OutDoorLights.com

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