Ugly Fluorescent Lighting Made Spectacular!
by
Lizzie Lee G
4 Materials
$15
3 Hours
Medium
When your kitchen comes with plain fluorescent lighting, make it into a work of art.
Remove the acrylic panels from your lights. They should slide out. Wash and degrease, if necessary, the lighting frame. Tape off and paint the frame. I used satin black rustoleum, and gave it two coats. Voila! A frame for your art. Thoroughly wash and dry the acrylic panels. If needed, degrease them, especially if in the kitchen.
Either draw your design on paper (tape several pieces together for the actual size of your acrylic panels) or find one on the Internet. I drew mine. Tape your design to the wrong side (bumpy side) of the acrylic so you can see it when you flip the acrylic panel over to trace it. Flip it over. On the smooth side, use a thin brush and paint your 'lead' lines, following your design. If you get off the design a bit, it's ok. It will look good. Connect the painted design with straight 'lead' lines, to make it appear that even the unpainted areas are white stained glass. Let it dry.
For each color, mix separately...I used a styrofoam plate. Mix a few drops with 2-3 teaspoonsful of the clear sealer. Don't mix to a solid color, let it look unblended...so that when it is applied, it looks a bit mottled. For several of my colors, while the paint was still wet, I added a drop of another color to make it look like I used custom pieces of stained glass. When you have completed your panel, let it dry thoroughly. Put back into the frame, smooth side up (or inside the fixture) so that the black 'leaded' lines can be seen as an outline from the viewing side.
The finished product!
When the light is turned on, it looks magnificent!
Comments
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2 of 3 comments
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Very clever and beautiful, it actually looks like stained glass. You did an outstanding job.
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Beautiful, good job.
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