Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Chandelier make-over

Do you have an old light fixture or chandelier that you’re trading out and not sure what to do with? Sure you can sell it on craigslist or send it to Goodwill or throw it out…OR you can revamp it! It could become a candle holder, a candle-labra, a terrarium…the possibilities are endless.

My dear Meme just so happened to be switching out some of the light fixtures in her house and she knows me well enough to hold on to stuff and ask me before she chunks it. Here's one of the two that she was getting rid of:


I lost the picture of what the chandelier looked like originally..but this one is almost identical -thanks to handy Google.
I wanted a chandelier to hang over the paisley table on the screen porch and knew that this would be perfect to transform into a candle chandelier. Ryan took out all the wiring and since it was two tiers it was a little longer than necessary. So, he unthreaded all the separate brass pieces and we were able to “re-build” it by just threading back on the pieces I wanted to keep. It made it shorter and put the two tiers closer together. I wanted to do this for functionality reasons too since I would be putting real candlesticks in it, I didn’t want one candles flame right under another candle, thus the end result probably being a melting candle hot wax mess. A hot mess.  The chandelier had faux candle sticks in it and once they were removed with all the wiring, it was the perfect size to put a candle stick or tealight down in…it even has a rim for drips. Perfect!
We bought a new chain to hang it with and painted the chain and the chandelier with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze.  And here it is…


on the screen porch

Chandeliers just like this one are very popular and can be found for next to nothing at thrift stores, garage sales, etc. Pottery Barn and other high end companies are selling a look just like these for $50-$250 and I made this one for the cost of the can of spray paint! I hope I’ve inspired you to go out, scavenge, and make your own before you spend a lot of $money$ buying one! Anything is possible! 

p.s. screen porch is obviously done, and has been for a while, I'm so bad about updating this thing...post coming soon. :)