Chandelier III-Habitat Find

While shopping for a chandelier for a friend at our local Habitat Restore, this one caught my eye.  How dated it looked!  But it was only $15.00!!!!!   I really liked the ornate arms of the chandelier.  I knew exactly  what I wanted to do with it.

I immediately took off the shade.   A good donation back to Habitat. I got out my trusty ladder and white primer spray paint and went to town.  Don't you think it already is an improvement?

                              Here is after one coat of primer and 2 coats of topcoat.

My secret for spray painting chandeliers came from my dear friend Tara.  We topcoat over the primer with white appliance spray paint.  It has the most amazing sheen to it.  Two coats of this and it is ready to go.

This is the brand of appliance paint that I use.  I bought this unopened can at an estate sale for .50.  Usually it costs $5.00.

Now this project would lie abandoned for months.  The outside summer projects began and I really didn't know where I could put this in the house.


I need to digress for a minute. Once I had spray painted this chandelier, I put it aside. I couldn't come up with an idea on how to embellish it.  Sometimes a project might take years just looking for something to complete it. Patience is a virtue.


Months later............................................


Two weeks ago, while looking in the Redstone Thrift Store, I spied these fabulous turquoise prisms for $1.00  a piece.  This was exactly the inspiration I needed to finish the project. The chandelier had three arms on it and I could hang one of three turquoise crystals from them.  With the infusion of the turquoise, I could hang the chandelier in my daughter's room with it's lime green and turquoise theme.

  I went to my stash of odds and ends prisms in storage  and laid them out.  I was ready to finish this project.

I went to find wire from the lighting store to rework the chandelier into one with a plug.  This gold wire is the type that they use to rework antique lamps.  This wire is half of the width of regular 18 gauge wire.

Mr. Thrifty now can rewire the fixture.  After the chandelier was rewired, it was time to hang the crystals.


             

I needed 15 like crystals.  Since I didn't have even 5 of any like items, I was going to use the hodge podge method and just start hanging them. The turquoise ones hung from the bottom of each stem.

                          Once it was rewired it, it was threaded it through the chain and the plug was added.

The next step was to go to th fabric scrap bin and pull out a 6 foot by 5 inch strip of duponi off white silk.  I guesstimated the width of the chain to be about 3 feet, so I doubled the length to allow for gathering.  I sewed a seam down the strip. 

                            Trim the edges with pinking shears and invert the fabric tube.  The pinking shears always help fabric from raveling.

                           Next, run the chain and electrical wire through the fabric tube.

                                                                     
                         Here is what the room looked like prior to hanging the chandelier.

 

The before lamp fixture had more color, but took up a lot of room on the night stand. This chandelier frees up much space for my youngest daughter.

 

 

Look at the hanging turquoise prism.

 

 

                       Here is the first look at the multitude of prisms hanging from the lamp.

I went to Home Depot and purchased a white ceiling hook and need Mr. Thrifty's assistance to attach it to the ceiling.  With minimal effort, the chandelier was hung.

Here is the chandelier hung and unlit.

And lit.

 

 

 

I love the romantic addition of the chandelier and I think it will grow with her into her late teens.

To sum up, a $15.00 chandelier, a .50 can of appliance spray, a box of jumbled prisms, a remnant of off white silk material, a ceiling hook, and refurbished piece of lamp wire created a very nice look for around $20.00.