the barn room chandelier

I love the chandelier that I found last year for the barn room.  Every time I look at it I am so grateful that it came to me at just the right time!   The room needed a large chandelier, and I had resigned myself that an antique piece would be impossible to find, much less afford, at that size.  Even the new chandeliers I found on-line were in the thousands, and that just wasn't in the budget. One day I decided to look on Craigslist for a chandelier. I kept widening my search to neighboring states, and I stumbled upon this beauty- a mere 5 hour round-trip away, in Connecticut!
The chandelier wasn't antique, but it was hand wrought iron, the perfect scale (just over 4 feet)  and the perfect design for what I envisioned in the room.  Oh, and I got it for a steal... the asking price was $300, I offered $250 and got it!

When I found it it was black, which I knew would be too harsh for the color palette I had envisioned for the room, so after much paint sampling I painted it a brown/rust color using Rustoleum Multicolor Texture spray paint in Autumn Brown.   The chandelier was then hung using antique iron chain and an antique bronze ceiling cap.  I can not begin to tell you the difference that using the antique chain and ceiling cap has made in how the piece looks and feels in the room.  Real wax candle sleeves in white from Lumiere Candles (don't forget the 10% off coupon for my readers HERE.)  

Love. 

Well, except for one little thing that absolutely drove me crazy ....

Can you spot it?  I would sit on the sofa underneath the chandelier and I swear this thing would blink at me to notice it!!   Even my very design savvy husband said "Oh, it's fine like it is."  It was not fine!  It was just plain wrong...

There it is in all its blinking-at-me glory..... the bottom of the center piece that looks like a cut-off pipe.  Wrong I tell ya.  It wasn't finished, it didn't make sense- like someone had made this beautiful chandelier and then ran out of time to finish it.  I contemplated drilling a small hole for an eye-hook and then hanging an antique crystal from it, but that never "felt" right or seemed like enough.  We had plans to go to our favorite The Old House Parts Company in Kennebunk, Maine on our next visit to look for a small antique ornate cap to finish off the end piece. 

That was until one day a couple of weeks ago while looking for something up in the attic I found this moving box filled with items which had been in my office/laundry room in Dallas.   

Inside the moving box was a plastic box filled with antique lamp parts and finials that I had saved for making lamps. I haven't seen or opened this box in four years!  My first thought was that maybe there was something inside I could use on the barn room chandelier?!

I brought the box down to the kitchen and took out a couple of finials that I thought might work.  I really liked the one on the far left, but it had a hole/opening on the bottom.  After playing with them for a minute I realized that the little French finial (the worm holes give it away as French) had a wooden dowel that just happened to fit perfectly into the first wooden piece.  It was a perfect scale for the chandelier and was the finishing touch I had been wanting!

Married, they looked like this...




And, they would hang from the chandelier like this...

Taking into consideration how I wanted the two to be placed together I used a little bit of tape to ensure that when Dan wood-glued the pieces together my "view" sides were aligned.  Dan then used some quick setting epoxy to attach the wood finial to the iron chandelier.

This is the chandelier now.... complete!
I love that the finial is wood and the chandelier is iron.  The color was a perfect match too- I didn't do a thing to the finials other than wipe them off.

I realized after adding the finial to the barn room chandelier how similar the effect was to the kitchen dining chandelier.

One more time-

before:

after:

Now I really love it!