Faux Crystal Chandelier

Last year, when my daughter was redoing my granddaughter’s room to make it look more “ grown up” now that she is a teenager, we were discussing all of the different fads. One of the things that was very popular was to replace the existing lighting with a chandelier.

The problem is, the ceilings are way too low in their house. Then I remembered something that I had seen on the internet a while back. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it again, so I don’t have a link to share with you, but some clever person made a faux crystal chandelier to cover an outdated dome light.

Since there is a small dome light in E’s bedroom, I shared this idea with her and she loved it!

Basically, you take an old lamp shade and some clear plastic cutlery and you end up with a fabulous crystal chandelier.

To make this I used:

* An old lampshade (one that has the top and bottom wire connected works better but since I didn’t have one, I had to connect the two with fish line)
* 2 boxes of plastic cutlery
* Lots of jump rings
* Thin wire
* Pliers
* Dremmel

I have been wanting to share this with you for a while now but it is a very difficult project to explain.

OK, I will give it my best shot!

The first thing you need to do is to strip the lampshade down to the wire frame. Then you will need to remove the portion of the frame that held it to the lamp. If you have the right kind of shade, when you get down to the frame, the top and bottom rings will be connected, all you would have to do is turn the frame upside down with the larger ring fitting up next to the light fixture and the smaller ring hanging down.

Here is an example of a frame that has the top and bottoms connected.

Where as, this frame has no pieces going down the side. So, when you take the shade material off, you are left with two separate pieces.

In a perfect world, you would have a lampshade, with the sides connected, that when turned upside down, the large ring would just fit, perfectly, over the globe of your dome light!

But, for this project, I had neither! When I stripped the shade down to the frame, I had two separate pieces. And, when I held the large ring up to the light, it was way to large for the small dome. So, the Captain cut the ring down to fit perfectly and I was able to glue it together, after I added all of the pieces, with E6000.

OK, now the next step is to take your pliers, with the sharp section that is used to cut wire.

And cut off the utensil portion leaving just the stem. This is a good project for a rainy day!

Once you have all of your stems cut, get out the Dremmel and drill a hole for the jump rings.

For the small inner circle, I attached a jump ring to a stem and slid it on the circle until it was full.

For the larger, outer ring, I wanted it to be long enough to hide the top of the inner circle, so I attached two stems together with a jump ring and then slid them onto the circle with another jump ring until that circle was full.

I glued both rings closed with tape and E6000.
Then I added some thin wire to the large ring. This wire will go under the globe of the light fixture and that is what holds it in place, over the dome light.

If I had had the right kind of shade, this project would be complete. But, since I didn’t, I had to figure out a way to connect the bottom ring inside the larger ring.
I decided that fish line would be the best option. It is hard to see in this picture, but it worked perfectly.

Here is the finished product.

I wrapped it up, and mailed it to my daughter.

When she hung it up, she also hung a purple blown glass ornament in the center.

You would never know that this was made with plastic forks, knives and spoons!

My granddaughter just loves it!

Linking up to:

Monday

Market yourself Monday at Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
It’s So very creative at It’s So Very Cheri
A marvelous mess at Marvelously Messy
Newbie Mondays at Debbiedoo’s
Monday LinkUp Party at Making The World Cuter
I Gotta Try That

Tuesday

Get your craft on at Today’s Creative Blog
Take a look Tuesday at Sugar Bee Crafts
Show me what ya got at Not Just A Housewife
A Bowl Full Of Lemons
Tout it Tuesday at Claiming Our Space
home decorating and organizing link party at Organize Your Stuff Now
Uncommonly yours at Uncommon Designs

Wednesday

Look what I made at Creations by Kara
Lil Luna link party at Lil Luna
Wildly Original Roundup at I Gotta Create (7pm)
whimsical Wednesday blog hop at Random
Whimsy Wednesday at The NY Melrose Family

Thursday

Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Creek Cottage (Wed night)
Hookin up party at House of Hepworths (Wed night)
Dog gone dirty craftin at Rhinestone Beagle
Made you look at Made in a Day

Friday

Frugal Friday at Shabby Nest (Thur night)
Friday flair at Whipperberry
Friday fun party at Craftionary
Fancy this Fridays at Truly Lovely
Freedom Fridays at My Turn (For Us)

Posted by Creative Lady of the House on February 18, 2013

https://creativeladyofthehouse.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/faux-crystal-chandelier/