Using iron wall art as a ceiling medallion

You can probably tell I'm a fan of ceiling medallions. In this instance, this is my living room. I have high, valuted ceilings with absolutely no detail (I know ceilings usually don't have anything on them :), but in this case it's almost overwhelming to have so much space when you walk in that looks just plain vanilla.

I wasn't 100% in love with the fan, but it wasn't the finish that was bothering me (at least black with dark wood blades is neutral and goes with my decor). I immediately thought wood beams (a huge trend in my area), but that was way out of my budget. So, then I thought, why not another ceiling medallion. With so much ceiling, I knew that it was going to have to be big, but not super heavy, visually. That's what led me to iron scrollwork. Large but airy. This is what I found:

I happened upon this piece at Kirklands and hoped it would work. It was round, very large (almost four feet), and it even had a hole in the middle. That's a rarity, though many of the round pieces I have or have seen do have a center medallion that can be removed or at least knocked out. The best part was that it was only $29.99. Now came the test, was the hole big enough to accommodate the fan.

I borrowed an high A-frame ladder (it needed to be 10 or 12 feet, and the highest I have is 6). A few calls to friends with high ceilings, and I had one (always borrow when you can). Now the fun part, taking the fan down. I've done this before so I knew how, just not that high in the air :). After carefully and slowly getting that heavy, long-poled thing to the ground, it was time to see if the medallion would even work. Luckily this style of fan had a ceiling plate that mounted to the box, and then the cap screwed onto it from the side.

Like This

                      Vs. this which I'm used to (but trust me, I would have made it work if it was like this)


So I headed up with the ceiling medallion and plate. It wasn't easy but I managed to get the ceiling medallion flat against the ceiling with my left forearm, then the plate under it with my left hand and start one screw with the right hand so it would hold. Luckily the iron is hollow, so it wasn't so heavy that there was no way I was going to do it. Next I started the second screw, then began the process of raising every thing by screwing each one in a little at a time. Once it was up, I truly couldn't believe it. Just a matter of bringing the fan back up, hooking it in, rewiring, putting the cap on, then back down to admire my HARD work.

I was afraid the fan would be unbalanced when all was said and done, but it must be a good fan, because it wasn't. I adore the results, even though I still want beams! Most importantly, I think this was the project that made me realize, I probably could do anything around my house if I just put my mind to it!