BEFORE & AFTER: BIG BLUE LANTERN
Since I've been out-of-town for a friend's wedding I am going to share a quick Before & After. This lantern was a bit of a hassle. I chose this lantern because it was large and a good price. Since the lantern was going in a back stairhall the homeowners didn't want to spend too much. I had always had the intention of having it powder-coated a bright color.
Which is where I encountered issues. Because of the right angles on the arm, to have it powder coated would have cost as much as the lantern, simply because the electrical would be so difficult to remove. The powder coating shop also said they were a little worried about the original finish and removing it easily - which is necessary to get a good clean powder coat.
Plan B - Blue Spray Paint. Looking at the lantern, I figured it would be easy to spray paint. The finish was bumpy and would be forgiving as well as creating a good surface for the new blue paint to adhere. You can see the black "before" finish in the left image above. Our largest obstacle when spray painting was the chain. I didn't want to spray paint the chain because the electrical would have needed to be removed and there are a lot of crevices in chain -perfect places for drips and the original finish to hide. If the chain wasn't going to be painted, where do you stop?
I love black & blue together and so I kept the stem, chain & canopy black and sprayed the lantern cage. Problem solved. Then after a successful paint job we had to deal with the hanging of the lantern and the restrictive ceiling beams. The electricians were great, and installed that baby with me giving directions from the top and the head electrician providing direction from the bottom of the stairs.
The electricians were nice enough to touch up the paint around the canopy (above image left) and you can see the view as you enter the house from the garage in the above right image. There is no true center in this area; the windows aren't centered and the stairs are angled so I choose the best view from the top of the stairs for height and placement.
Ta-dah! Edison bulbs provide a nice alternative to candelabra bulbs. Round bulbs would have been nice here too.