So first, I took the fixture down and disassembled it. I was a little scared of what I had decided to do, but just went with it.
Sanded and primed it and found a cute helper along the way!
Then sprayed it black and put it back together, without the glass. I thought that would make it more updated, a la Pottery Barn.
As you can see, we still have the gold flecked popcorn ceiling and funky brown bottom half of the wall to deal with, but baby steps, baby steps. Thinking of taking the chair rail down and doing grasscloth in the entry way or a WOW color or just a nice welcoming gray....thoughts??
Ok, thats it for now. This is not as hard as I thought.