A New Lamp and Painting Glass...

It started with a lamp...  I splurged on a Juliska lamp right as I was finishing law school.  I love Juliska crystal- the glass is so thin and delicate and is made by hand.  The Juliska lamp sat on a console table in my entryway for a bit, but I had always longed for a second one so I could place each lamp on either end of my living room sofa. 

On Friday, I checked out the Charlotte Assistance League Thrift Store.  It is probably the "fanciest" thrift store in Charlotte, as in it is the most pleasant shopping experience for thrifters.  That said, the inventory within the store is similar to other thrift stores- very hit or miss (and usually a miss).  However, this time a lamp caught my eye.  A Juliska lamp EXACTLY like mine.  As far as thrift store prices go, it wasn't cheap.  It was still $125.  But that is a fraction of the retail price of the lamp, and I really wanted to have a matching pair.  So home it came with me!

As soon as I got it home, I knew that the glass lamps would be lost on my glass directoire tables. 

 The directoire tables were an inexpensive catalog find, but truly they look so much like the real thing, with the tiny animal feet and gold leaf finish! 

With a little prodding from MoS Washington, I decided to paint the glass black.  I thought painting the underneath side so it would show through the clear glass would look best. 

I picked up some black Rust-oleum (they really need to advertise with us!). 

 And I went to work.  It took a few coats to get it nice and even.  And when you flipped the glass over, it looked absolutely perfect, like jet black glass.

 I popped the glass back into each table.

And added the lamps!  I love the contrast that the black glass provides, with the gold leaf table and the crystal clear Juliska lamps.

 This was my first experience painting glass, but it really worked!  I think the key is to paint the inside or underside and let it show through to the pretty "clean" side, if that makes sense.

So I finally have my pair of lamps flanking each side of my living room sofa, contrasting against the black and gold directoire tables!