The middle school craft project gone wrong

...well, it's done. I really wanted to replace this UGLY UGLY pendant light. My husband claims that he "likes it" but what that really meant was that he didn't want me to spend money on a new light. So I tried to come up with something creative and cute. I finished the project (finally) but it does remind me of that middle school craft project gone wrong :) Kelly, you are not the only one; lighting is difficult, in my view.

Here's to effort and how I did it.

How to Clean Vintage and Antique Brass Hardware

Brasso!

A lot of the hardware I work with is brass, well tarnished 60-100 year old brass. The best way to spruce up the old hardware without having to give up the vintage appeal is to clean the hardware and bring back the original brass (gold) shimmer! I've done this for several pieces - see my vintage cedar chest makeover.

I did a lot of research and came down to three basic ingredients for cleaning tarnished brass hardware: lemon, salt, vinegar, and Brasso. So from the three ingredients, I test three bass methods.

Things you'll need no matter what method you use:

Warm water with soap
Gloves
A soft toothbrush for scrubbing in the crevices

Method 1: Lemon plus salt

I had originally read this method on Centsational Girl blog - there, Kate recommends roughly 1/4 cup of salt per squeeze of /2 lemon.

I used this method when refinishing my vintage cedar chest. I let it soak overnight two different times and the result was really quite good! I repeated the soaking process to get the result I wanted...