Foyer Makeover - Day 2: Chandelier - a pleasant surprise!

My beautiful Mom, God bless her soul, dealt with antique stores and consignment shops buying and selling.  When she passed away, my sisters and I went to the shops and collected her unsold items.  Surprisingly, we ended up with four chandeliers which have basically been hanging in my garage for several years now until we decide what to do about them.  I see them every day pulling my car in and out of the garage and never really noticed them.... until this week.

Looking for a foyer light to replace the current one, I was on Craigslist, eBay, thrift stores, etc.  Ironically, I found a wonderful light in my own garage - how great is that???

There were a few hurdles before I knew it would be a viable solution.

 #1 - It was wired to plug into the wall and not be wired into the ceiling.
#2 - It was dusty dirty and I wasn't sure it was even in working condition.
#3 - It may be too long and wide for the space in which case it would be hit by the front door.

A little dusty and dirty so I cleaned it up and removed all the crystals...

This is the pile of cord and chain I had to remove in order to prepare it to be wired into the ceiling.

Before I went any further, I plugged it in to see it if would even work and lo and behold.... let there be light!  It worked and I was quite excited that it had the potential to be fabulous.  There is a little metal tag on the top of the light which says MADE IN ITALY - a very good thing!  :-)

So I held it up to the ceiling and NOOOOO!  Say it isn't so!  It was too large for the space and the front door did hit as it was opened.  But I wasn't going to let a few inches defeat me - I was simply going to have to move it - how hard could it be, right?  Time to put the thinking cap on again...

So, I removed the bracket from the electrical box and moved it over and secured it to the wall.  This will provide the mount for the chandelier and leave enough room for the door swing.

I left enough room to fish the electrical cord down through the bolt and not to pinch the cord, and yet kept it close enough to the ceiling so it would be strongly secured.

I used screw-in anchors and it worked perfectly.  This light is very secure and moving it over a few inches completely solved the front door problem.  I will cover this mess with a medallion.  

I cleaned the crystals and hung them over and over until I found a look that I liked.    

For now, I added these black shades I found at Goodwill for  .99 cents, but I will try to find longer shades to hide the a little more of the bulbs and get a dimmer for the option of a softer glow.   I like that this is not a full blown crystal chandelier and yet it has enough subtle bling to glam up my entryway.

I have really come to like the look of this light and the way it looks in my foyer.  But I also find this extra special because my Mom found this somewhere and liked it enough to buy it.   I love that it is like she bought it specifically for me.  How I wish with all my heart she was here to see this and the mini makeover I gave her "find".  I am sure she would be pretty pleased.  Thanks Mom, I love it!