New Life for an Old Garage Light.
by
Sharon
2 Materials
$15
4 Hours
Easy
This is my first post so forgive me if I don't give enough details. My son wanted new lights that come on automatically for his garage since he and his wife both work late and get home after dark. My husband and I took down the old lights and replaced them with the new ones. I told my son to hang onto the old lights because I might want to do something with them.
Old garage light.
I was planning on making a Christmas decoration for my 4 year old granddaughter and I knew I wanted the exterior to be white and gold but the rest of it just sort of developed as I went along.
Gathering supplies.
I gathered some materials and got busy! I took the light completely apart and did a really good cleaning. I also used some paint remover to get the black paint off. I had to sand the exterior because after 20+ years the weather had taken a toll on the exterior. Sorry I wasn't planning on posting this so I did not take pics during the process. I have done a lot of restoration projects over the years so I was not new to spray paint but this project gave me a lot of problems. The paint would not cover even though I used the spray primer. The paint ran and then it crinkled. So I had to remove the paint and start over. Finally I got a finish that was acceptable. I painted the corner pieces and the finial gold and the inside of the dome dark blue. I had to cut a small piece of wood to cover the hole that was in the bottom of the light and glued it into place. Now that that was done it was on to the decorating part.
Decorating the snowscape.
I had a Christmas card (it says "He is still found by those who seek Him") that I thought would work to cover the back plate as it was metal and not glass. It didn't quite cover so I put some Tacky Glue on the sides and sprinkled it with fine white glitter. I also highlighted the star on the card with the glitter to make the cross in the picture stand out. I got the snowman, the little tree, and the artificial snow at Walmart. Before putting the light back together I glued the snowman and the tree to the wood on the bottom of the light. I put the sides on before adding the snow to keep everything contained. I purchased a string of battery operated Dewdrop Lights (Phillips for $5.99) and fed them through the hole in the dome where the original electrical came through and hot glued them to the dome to simulate stars.
Finishing up.
From there I glued (E6000 glue) the cord to the top of the light so it would not pull out the lights, taped the control to the back of the metal plate and turned on the light. So pleased with the way this turned out and I can't wait to give it to my granddaughter. Sorry I don't have more in progress pics but I really did not even think about posting this until it came out so cute - I had to share! The total cost to me was less than $10 because I had some of the materials like the glue, the blue, white and gold paint.
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