I had planned to work on the porch this weekend and even went to Lowe’s and purchased everything I needed to begin the porch renovation. And then it rained heavily. So I turned my attention back to the entrance instead. The lamps I ordered for the entryway arrived on Friday, so I was pretty excited to unpack and assemble them so I could get an idea of what else I wanted to add to the entryway wall to complete this area.
But my excitement was short-lived. I unpacked the first lamp and at first glance I liked the base. I chose something simple and shiny, preferably glass.
But the shade had a dent in the top, and the dent is right on the front of the shade. Pooh.
And then upon closer inspection I noticed this awful shiny sealant between the glass and the metal base. Caulking is a messy job and it’s shiny so it looks pretty tacky.
I decided to unpack the second copy anyway and the shade was even worse.
I replaced the shade so I wasn’t distracted by the dents and could assess the lamp base without distraction.
But then I noticed the base. Look at the area where the glass piece attaches to the base. The glass part is nowhere near centered on the metal base!
Obviously these have to be returned. The picture online was nice, but in person these are a mess.
I didn’t feel like going back online, ordering new lamps and waiting. So I went to Lowe’s, determined to find something that would work, even if I had to paint them white. The first one I found is this one. It is very similar to the ones I bought online except the base has a ribbed texture. But I didn’t like the shadow. It looked cheap to me.
That was a consideration, but again I didn’t like the color.
I found two basic options that didn’t come with sunglasses. I liked this one, but it looks a little too “southwestern” for me. I’m sure it would have matched my house better if I had painted it all white, but I wasn’t sold on it.
And finally, this was the last option. I liked the shape, but even though it’s already white, it still needs painting as the color is about a shade or two off for me. It had a hint of yellow and I wanted a cleaner creamy white.
In the end I went with the last option and spent about 40 minutes applying a few coats of off-white spray paint to remove the yellow undertone. I don’t even know if you can tell the difference in the picture, but I could really tell a difference in person. Obviously the left is the painted color and the right is the original color.
As it turns out, I like these much better than the (idea of) the original lamps. I thought I wanted shiny glass, but I really prefer the subtle texture of it. So it turned out well.
But now I really want to paint the console table. I’m just not thrilled with how orange and patchy the finish looks. I think it would look much better painted. So I picked a few colors straight from the mural and tried them out on the table (using my photo editing software). First I tried this green.
Next I tried a lighter green. I really like this one.
I also tried this yellow green from the flowers on the top left. I’m not entirely sure I could live with this color.
And then of course I had to try out some pink ones. I started with a light pink.
And then I tried this darker pink that matches my favorite flowers from the mural.
And then I got even darker. I don’t think you can call it pink anymore. What is this color? Magenta? Whatever it is, I love it.
I tried a few other colors, for example different shades of teal and purple, but I found that these don’t go well with the mural as it is quite dark on the bottom. I like colors that stand out and make an impression. I think I’ll paint the console table now. I’m into it with all my heart and you all know that I won’t be happy until I have an idea in my head, once I’ve tried it out. All I know is that I don’t want that orange wood tone in the entryway anymore and I don’t feel like refinishing it. So color is the way to go.
