Painting - Old Lamps

I just got a couple of old brass lamps. I'm not a huge fan of brass and they don't match my furniture. I would like to refinish them with a silver/chrome finish. I would like to know if it would be worth the work to try and/or how would I do it.

you might be able to get them black, or maybe a brushed nickel color, but i doubt you could achieve a glossy/shiny chrome finish.

go to hardware store and pick up krylon spray paint in a chrome or the hammered look looks great too, you may also want to experiment with a sponge on paint to get what you want if you like a mat finish, hey it is only paint :)

I hate to see brass painted but it can be done, just be sure the paint is suited for metal. While it would be better to prime it probably isn't critical to do so.

While chrome paints claim to look just like chrome I have never seen any that were all that shiny.

Thanks. I know it sounds kinda wierd to want to try this. Every I have talked about it has looked at me like I am crazy. But I think they are great looking lamps. I will post how it turned out in a couple of weeks when I can set aside time to really sit down and give it a try.

We tried the same thing with a "hammered metal" finish spray paint and it worked pretty well. We actually did this with a brand new ceiling fixture. We were replacing a lot of old shiny brass fixtures with brushed nickel: after much searching we found the perfect fixture and it was cheap, but it only came in shiny brass. The only drawback is if you compare it too closely to other fixtures, it is noticeably less shiny, but some of the cheaper brushed nickel fixtures are the same (they're probably just painted too).

It is a table lamp so I want it to look good enough that people can't tell its been redone. How well did yours turn out?

If you want an actual chrome finish, you could have them chrome plated. This may be a bit more than you want to spend though, but is an option.