We recently had a visit to the Adelaide St. Restore in London and it was awesome. I picked up this brand new light fixture for over our table for $15.
Yes, I realize it is brass and Aaron couldn’t understand what I was so excited about (he should have learned by now that I always have a plan!) but I intended to give it a paint job.
When we got home I broke out the Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze paint and went to work. I’m still kind of getting used to spray painting so the finish didn’t turn out perfect but it looks a heck of a lot better than it did brass and the light fixture as a whole is a large improvement over the unidentified flying object that was there before! We did make use of the chain to string it over half a foot or so, so that it was centered over the new location of the table. After Aaron got it all hung he installed a dimmer switch that he had kicking around in the basement and now we have a dimmable light!
So the brand new light in box was $15, the spray paint was $8 and the dimmer was $1(also from Restore at an earlier date and also brand new in box) bringing my new dining room light to a total of $24 which is pretty darn good if you’ve looked at the price of lighting lately 🙂
Before:
After:
beckymakes 
This light fixture looks so much better! I agree with Aaron – definitely would not have picked that out but you definitely have the creative eye. I may need you to come to Calgary when my condo is built and help me with some of these finishing touches!