Tole!

Remember the antique lily chandelier that I acquired and refinished, and hung in my guest bath?

(via ME!) 

I've recently come across TWO blog posts about them -  Apartment Therapy has one up today; and Design Sponge has one from 2013.

This chandelier is Italian "Tole" (/toe-lə/), and refers to ornate fixtures usually painted, gilded, or shellac'd (to prevent rust on metal fixtures) - and also refers to similarly-painted tin trays and other metal or wood objects. They're often brightly colored:

(Pinterest, Ebay)

(Pinterest, Etsy) 

Or painted in gold, or darker metal tones:

(from http://www.frankie.com.au/, via Apartment Therapy)

Squee!  I have to admit, I don't like the colored ones; but I LOVE the white and gold finishes I've seen.  and I adore my gold bathroom chandelier. :)

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Guest Bath Chandelier - Finished!

I posted here and here about a pair of antique, homemade chandeliers that I was given by a dear friend. I've finished the lily chandelier, which was made by my friend's metal-worker great-grandfather in the 60s.  Here is the before:

It's a four-light candelabra chandelier, originally gold-leafed.  It's 54 years old, and was encrusted with dust and cigarette smoke.  The gold leaf was peeling, and the metal was rusting underneath. The wiring was all good, thankfully, though I did replace the main wire leading up from the center of the fixture to the ceiling mount.  I also scrubbed and sanded the fixture to remove the gold leaf and rust and dirt, bent some of the metal bits back into shape, spray-painted the bulb holders white, and primed, then sprayed the entire fixture in a pale, shiny gold.

My guest bath, meanwhile, had this three-light fixture in it:

Which was pretty, but not fabulous.  I wanted fabulous.  

Here is the after:

Yay!!  I love this SO MUCH!!


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