The Story of a $5 Lamp Base

As with all the stories with me these days this one too started on Craigslist. I was looking for Chinese Ginger jar lamps for a while but never found them as a pair or in my budget. A few months went by with me following up with every seller I found but nothing seemed to work out. Then I came across these 2 ladies….

And for the price of $5 each!  I had to go to Montgomery county, MD to pick these up. You know, I had my daughter in the car (I was picking her up from dance) and wasn’t sure if I had made the right decision to pick something up from someone I found on Craigslist. Thankfully I had checkout the neighborhood and the place out in advance. It was Spring, the house was on top of a hill, a hill full of Azeleas in peak bloom. Azeleas in every color possible. It was so pretty! I could have just gone there to see that pretty sight. The lamps were just a bonus. The lady who was selling these turned out to be a flea market seller. The day I went to pick these up one of the flea markets that she had planned to go had gotten cancelled because of rain and her home was full of the stuff she had to sell. I mean every nook and corner of her living room and hallway was filled with loads and loads of vintage and antique things. I was like a kid in a candy store and in my excitement I tried to explain to her that I’m a home decor blogger n all. But sadly I couldn’t have picked a more inappropriate time to pick up my lamp goodies; she was having dinner and didn’t like that I interrupted it and wouldn’t go instead I was chatting away to glory about how much I loved this stuff. I soon sensed her discomfort and made a quick exit. I did get the details of her Spring market location though (haven’t had a chance to go check her store out yet but that is a different story).

Anyways I did find my vintage lamps, they are painted white glass and brass but the brass were in pretty bad shape all tarnished and spotty.

Nothing a little Brasso and elbow grease can’t fix.

Look at all the yuck that came off!

After a second round of scrubbing we were talking nice and shiny.

Here’s a zoomed out shot of the clean and polished lamps.

When I put them up in the newly painted guest bedroom something seemed lacking, you know like it needed a bit more pizzazz.

That’s when I remembered I had some left over Liquid Gilding from my frame project. Ta da!

Sorry, didn’t take an pics of the process. All I did was take a brush and paint a line on both the edges. It was that easy. Like I mentioned in the gilding post, be sure to do this outside as the smell is very strong. And you do need to air it out for a couple of days.

What a difference a touch of Gold makes! It finishes off the piece, don’t you think? I think I’m going Gold crazy! Everything looks better to me if it has a touch of Gold. How about you?