Chandelier

Why are light fixtures so expensive?

We had this one in our dining room from the previous owners.

I looked it up online and to buy a similar one new it would be around $80.  It wasn’t a horrible light, but the chrome color didn’t go with the new color scheme.  And even though I thought about painting it, I wasn’t in love with the frosted glass over the lights.

New light fixtures I liked were running around $300.  I found one that would probably work for around $100, but I just wasn’t sure I wanted to spend that much either for something I didn’t love.

I had been looking on craigslist every once in a while.  But even then people had chandeliers listed pretty expensive, and if it was a decent price, it was going too quickly for me to get it.

But this past weekend I lucked out.  I found a light fixture that was supposedly original to a house and a vintage brass color listed for $25.  And when the first person didn’t show up to buy it, I swooped in and picked it up.

I didn’t take a before picture shot of the fixture, but it was very similar to this one (except a darker brass color), which is currently on sale new for $400.

My husband wasn’t thrilled with the fixture, but I thought it had great potential.  And once we decided to spray paint the white candle holders with navy paint….I was officially in love with it.

And we prayed that it would work once the fixture got hooked up.  Luckily after a few tweaks and figuring out I didn’t have the sleeves put on correctly after I had painted them….all the lights worked (although we still haven’t gotten out to get some remaining light bulbs to correctly fill all the spots).

So the moral of this story is….don’t be in a hurry to buy a light fixture if you can help it, look on craigslist and your local thrift stores for bargain finds.

Cost to buy this new = $400

Cost for our used fixture = $25 light + $12 gas to pick it up + $6 spray paint = $43

That is a huge savings!