Who would look at a nifty brass light fixture like this one and think, “You know, what would really make that look better is an uneven coat of crap-colored spray paint. And I just happen to have a can in the basement!”

My Darling B got this for me at the last auction we went to. I think she paid all of three bucks for it. As is, it looked like she paid too much for it, but after a couple hours careful work with a wire brush attachment in a Dremel moto-tool I got it to look like this. The paint, lumpy and old, just went poof! when the wire brush hit it. Took a while to get it out of all those little nooks and crannies, though.

She got the rest of the lamp, too, all but the shade and the light bulb. It’s a floor lamp on a tall wooden spindle. The spindle looks great, only needs a quick bit of sanding and staining, but the base needs quite a lot of work. I’m not sure there’s enough glue in my work shop to put it back together, maybe not in all the Ace hardware stores in Madison. But even if I throw that away, the brass was worth it.