Repurposing a Vintage Metal and Glass Flush Mount Lighting Using Our Favorite Gold Spray Paint
Like I mentioned before in my last post, I had been searching for a long time for a smaller flush mount lighting with a gold accent to go in our bedroom. One day, it popped up on FB marketplace for $20! It was a vintage metal and glass flush mount original to the owner’s 1950’s home. I quickly paid and picked it up the next day!
Except, it was copper and in rough shape. But I knew it would be easy to update the metal to a gold finish!
Cleaning the Vintage Metal and Glass Flush Mount Lighting
First, it needed some good cleaning. I simply used soap and water to clean away the dust and dirt from the metal and glass. I was able to use my fingernails to scrape off the old paint from the glass. It was much harder to get the paint off the metal though. After researching online and using what I had in the house, I heated up 1/4 cup of vinegar and soaked it right on the paint, waited 10 minutes and scraped way with a razor blade.
A few people suggested these other methods to remove paint from the metal:
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Magic Eraser (I tried this and it worked okay)
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Acetone Nail Polish Remover (lots of people vouched for this method)
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Rubbing Alcohol
Sanding the Vintage Metal and Glass Flush Mount Lighting
Since we were planning to change the metal piece to gold, we didn’t continue to explore other methods to remove the paint. We lightly sanded it down using grit-220 sanding disc.
Priming and Painting the Vintage Metal and Glass Flush Mount Lighting
We primed the metal using the Rust-oleum primer and spray painted it gold using Rust-oleum Metallic Gold Spray Paint. This is our preferred gold spray paint that we’ve used for previous projects. It gives a nice metallic shine vs. a matte look. You’ll want to coat the metal really good using nice and even strokes.
Pro Tip: use a Culver’s cup to set the metal plate on top 😉
Let the paint on the metal dry and cure before installing.
We wanted to somewhat match the metal gold color to the new larger flush mount light fixture that will also be installed in the bedroom. I love how the Rust-oleum Metallic Gold Spray Paint gives a nice shiny finish.
For $20 + gold spray paint, we were able to restore this vintage light fixture. Looks so much better than what was there before!
BEFORE
AFTER
It took me some patience and luck to find this vintage metal and glass flush mount lighting. But if you’re out of patience, you can check out this post of nice looking smaller flush mount lighting that I rounded up.
