Ok, I am finally done with my chandeliers! It took me a long time to finish these because of some difficulties with the shade. I will share with you what NOT to do as well so you don't make the same mistakes I did. I started out with these two lights from the Restore (they were $15). I'm sure you have seen some like these before.
I found two of these lamp shades at the Goodwill for $1.99. I thought they would be the perfect size/shape for this project. However, the inside of the lamp shades had yellowed and I wasn't crazy about that. So, here's where things started to go wrong. I first got the idea to cover the inside with gray/silver tissue paper but I couldn't find that so I thought a gray napkin would work, boy was I wrong.
I found two of these lamp shades at the Goodwill for $1.99. I thought they would be the perfect size/shape for this project. However, the inside of the lamp shades had yellowed and I wasn't crazy about that. So, here's where things started to go wrong. I first got the idea to cover the inside with gray/silver tissue paper but I couldn't find that so I thought a gray napkin would work, boy was I wrong.
I applied it with modge podge and this is what I came up with. I was expecting more of a smooth finish. I knew this would not work so I decided to paint the inside (after tediously scraping every last bit of paper off of it). I started with a brush then moved to spraypaint but neither covered well enough, even after several coats. So, I moved on to some cool wallpaper my mom had, but you could see the paint strokes through the wallpaper when the light was on. At this point I was ready to throw the shades away and start over and I probably would have but I couldn't find the right size in the store. So, my last resort was to use some thick microfiber fabric I had leftover from another project. I applied it with hot glue and used an exacto knife to trim the egdges. This finally worked. I forgot to take a picture of the shade but you will see it in the finished product. Here it is with the napkin, not so good...
Onto the next step. I didn't take a good "before" picture of the light once it was disassembled but the bottom of the chandelier part was completely flat. Since most chandeliers have some sort of decorative ball at the bottom I knew I would have to find something to put there to make it more "chandelier like". I found these apothecary jars at Walmart and bought them on a whim, hoping they would be the right size. After all the trouble I had with the shades I was expecting another problem. Thankfully I was wrong and these worked perfectly! I couldn't believe how well they fit. I just used some Epoxy to hold them in place. (I only used the lid part)
I took the whole light apart. It's pretty simple you just start unscrewing it and it should all come apart pretty easily. Depending on how many parts and pieces there are, you may want to take a picture of it so you can remember how it goes back together. Once it was all apart, I spraypainted it a metallic silver color. Then I attached some of these crystals from Lowe's to the arms using some fishing line.
ok, after all that, finally the reveal...Most of these are with the lights off because with the lights on you can't really tell what they look like. I'm going to try to take some more pictures with the lights on later and see if I can get some better ones. I think they add a lot of drama to our entryway without a spending a lot of money~
Posts
