Chandelier Make Over

I've seen so many chandeliers on Pinterest, made over to be cute, fun, repurposed (cupcake holders, anyone?) and just plain cool. I've been itching to try my hand at revamping one. I added it to my garage sale finds wish list. Finally, I stumbled across one. I splurged and spent the dollar they were asking. Didn't even try to chew the seller down. I know, I know, could have saved a quarter.

I took it all apart, removed all wiring and scrubbed the fixture with a toothbrush. I tried really hard to keep the pieces together in order...I was mostly successful...glad I had a before picture to help with the reassembly, though.

Somehow I lost all the photos of the paint job...I'm pretty sure I took some. Imagine if you can...

• a wooden swing set, with the swings flipped over the top so they'd be out of the way
• a dull bronze chandelier hanging from the "eye" of one of the swings with a bungee cord
• a sheet that has seen other spray paint jobs spread neatly under the chandelier
• a sheet that was spread neatly, rumpled by the slight breeze
• a can of metal primer spray paint
• a chandelier sprayed white with primer
• another can of spray paint...with a pink cap
• a chandelier sprayed pink, but definitely needing another coat
• a more evenly covered paint job...boy getting the underside is tricky!
• a chandelier left to dry

Next came the actual spendy part...adding the bling. Went to the local craft store, hauling my project. I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the floor in front of the beads trying to figure out how many I needed and how best to cover all the spots for the bobbles. There were 55 in all! I'm really glad that J's was having a sale, because I donated an arm and a leg for those sparklies! I got out my daughter's beading supplies and went to work.

I really wanted to use tea cups for the tea lite holders, but wasn't having much luck finding the perfect set of them. I finally decided to use tea lite cups. I dipped the rim in matching paint and hung them upside down on small bottles to dry. I glued them to the chandy with E6000.

 Now my project needs a new home. I've listed it on Craig's List, but kinda high priced because of the beads. We'll see if I can sell it. Sure was fun to put together though!