The Vintage Depot: Painting Metal Lamps with CeCe Caldwell Paints

Some of my favorite things to revive and restore with paint are lamps. So I was excited when I found this large, very heavy metal lamp base at an area thrift store.

It sat around in my garage for awhile as I waited for it to "speak to me" about how it should be painted. Finally, I heard it loud and clear and painted on a base coat of CeCe Caldwell's Paint in Myrtle Beach Sand. No prep, no sanding and no primer. Yes, you can paint metal with CeCe Caldwell's Paints without using a metal primer! Just start painting on the bare metal. How easy is that?

It looked so good that I considered just leaving it Myrtle Beach Sand. But I proceeded with my plan. When the basecoat dried, I followed with a coat of CeCe Caldwell's Paint in Montana Blue Sky. I'm not normally a blue paint lover but the lamp had "spoken" to me. It turned out I really love this beautiful color!

When the Blue Montana Sky had dried completely, I wet distressed with a damp cloth to expose the Myrtle Beach Sand and the original brown metal. Wet distressing is really easy on metal as the paint comes off very easily. It's easy to overdo it, so don't distress as much as you feel like you should. Using a small wax brush to get into all the little spaces, I applied a coat of CeCe Caldwell's Clear Wax to seal the paint and wiped off the excess. See how the wax turns the paint darker so you can make sure you haven't missed a spot?

This lamp didn't need Dark Aging Cream added because the metal was already dark and was showing through after distressing. After waiting a few hours to make sure the Clear Wax was completely dry (you can tell it's dry when it no longer feels tacky), I took a soft cloth and buffed to a soft shine.

I found a beautiful, brand new pleated fabric shade a few months earlier at another thrift store. When I find a bargain on something this beautiful I always buy it knowing I'll have a use for it one day. And I'm so glad I did!