Now, if you or someone you know lives in a house in a development built in the 80’s or 90’s, you know that there are mirrors, glass and gold everywhere! The ultimate decor trifecta. Fortunately, I scored myself a chandelier with all three of these qualities. 🙂
What I used for this project:
- Chandelier
- Rust-oleum Spray paint
- 4 Embroidery hoops
- Fabric
- Clothes pins
- Floral wire
- Fabric glue
- Ribbon/trim
- Painters tape
- Screw driver
- Electrical tape
- Measuring tape
The first step to take on this beauty was actually taking it down. I shut off the power and used my screw driver to loosen the chandelier from the ceiling. Note: if you can have a buddy help you with this part it makes life a lot easier!
Make sure when you are detaching the wires from one another you take note as to which ones were hooked up to each other. Also, put the wire caps back onto the wires hanging from the ceiling.
Once I had the chandelier down, I cleaned it off and prepped it for painting.
Then I gave it a nice thin coat of spray paint. After a bit, I rotated it to make sure I had covered all the various sides. Once it was completely dry, I reattached it to the ceiling. It looks better already, right?!
Now as lovely as those mirror and glass attachments were, I knew I wanted to modernize the finish a bit. So, instead of individual covers, I opted to make two drums by using four embroidery hoops, fabric and wire.
First, I disassembled the hoops and used the wood circles as the base of my drums.
After measuring the distance between each drum on the chandelier, I began using wire to attach the top hoop to the bottom hoop. There was no exact science to this, I just kept trying to measure it out correctly and evenly space the wire as best as possible. I also attached wire to the top for later to secure the drums to the chandelier.
After I had both drums assembled, I gave them the same color of paint so they would camouflage with the chandelier base. Once it was dry, it was time to attach the fabric. Using fabric glue on the inside of the drum on the top and bottom, I attached the fabric. Clothes pins came in handy to hold everything in place while it dried.
If you want to give the fabric a nice clean edge, you can attach ribbon or trim too. Once the glue had set, it was time to attach the drums to the chandelier. Using the metal crossbars, I attached the wires to the chandelier using black electrical tape.
Viola! A beautiful upcycled chandelier!
Before:
After:
I think we have the same fixture in a home we are buying. I am not very handy, but I did think of spray painting it. The look with the 2 drums looks great. I am not able to see how exactly they attach to the main frame though.
Did you ever consider spray painting the glass to look frosted. I wonder if that would make the thing look less bedazzling!
We would love to see your project if you decide to spray paint it! Congratulations on your new house, what a fun adventure! Thank you for your feedback – we didn’t consider spraying the glass but maybe we will do that next time! Thanks so much for the tip. We hope you enjoy our blog and we hope to have you follow our journey.