From the Laundry Room to the Ball Room

Saw this beauty a while back while wandering through blogland.

Source Here

I admired and was inspired! Pure genius using a simple everyday object in an unexpected way. I decided to try my own version. Starting with the clothespins, I found the most cost effective ones to be from the good ol' Dollar Tree.

I couldn't tell from the pic above how things were put together, but decided to use a method I have used to make many other home made chandeliers. If ya'll haven't discovered strapping tape yet, you should! The stuff I'm talking about is usually used to strap water heater tanks to a wall.

It's galvanized metal, bendable, super cheap and has convenient holes already in it! The holes work well when forming the base shape of a chandelier and to hang things from.

 You will also need wire (I used 20 gauge) a good pair of tin snips, a glue gun and some metal chain.

Cut a length of strapping tape. You can decide how big or how small, but you will need three of the same shape, in graduating sizes. I chose circular, but you could also do a square or rectangle.

Two of my three circles ready to be assembled!

Secure the two sides together by overlapping slightly and running some wire through the holes and around the edges. Pull the wire as tight as you can during this step. Pliers might help.

Next step is to hot glue the clothespins to the metal form. I spaced them out by placing over every other hole in the strapping tape, but you could bunch them all up together or space them further apart, whatever your heart desires! Open the clothespin, squeeze a little dab of hot glue and let it close on the metal. This step ensures the clothespins won't shift while you are assembling your chandelier.

They are looking pretty cool so far and I'm really digging the sculptural quality they have!

 Now it's time to link the tiers together! 'Dry fit' the graduating shapes to make sure they fit together well.

Using your pliers, open the link on each end of the chain. I make sure the chain is all equal length by counting links, and making sure each length is the same number of links...make sense? Then, I attach the chain by hooking the open end in one of the holes of the strapping tape. I space the chain uniformly by counting the holes between each point where the chain is attached. Then attach the other end to the next tier, and use your pliers to close each end link back up.

I found it easier to work from the biggest shape to the smallest. Because each circle is smaller than the next, the number of holes between each chain connection had to decrease. I decided to jazz mine up with some spray paint, but I really liked the industrial look of the natural wood and the metal.

If I did it again, I would probably pull the tiers closer together so there is less space between them. But overall, I am really pleased with the way it turned out and I think it would look terrific hanging in a beautiful garden or as a cheeky light fixture in a laundry room...or a ballroom! As always, thanks for visiting and also please consider following my blog. I appreciate your comments! Ya'll come back now, ya hear? ;-)

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Style File Part Three

Happy Friday everyone!  Today I talk about using familiar objects in different ways. To that end, I feature my kitchen back-splash made of glass vase filler or aquarium pebbles and a chandelier I made out of clothespins! I will be talking about that chandelier and how I did it in an upcoming post! Enjoy, and as always, thanks for stopping by!

Big Blue

As is my usual habit, I was one day last week browsing through the craigslist ads when I noticed an unusual post.  It said " very large chandelier."  Chandeliers are not hard to come by on craigslist, but they are usually standard, run of the mill, normal sized fixtures.  The measurements listed in the post were " 36" high and 42" wide."  I got out my measuring tape and tried to get an idea of how big this thing really was, because in the picture posted with the add, it did not seem that big.  My thought was to get it and re-sell it since it was ridiculously low priced, which was another thing that caught my eye in the ad.  Very large and low priced?  I was all over it!!  I called within 10 minutes of the owner posting and he said I was the 4th caller already.  But, as luck would have it, none of the other callers were able to come see the "very large chandelier" right away.  I was.  Within 30 minutes, I was standing before it with mixed thoughts on whether or not to purchase it.  It was kind of ugly brown and beige eighties looking and indeed VERY large ( the picture did not do it justice as it was bigger in person than I had imagined.) Would anybody buy it from me? Would I get stuck with this huge monstrosity?  How would it fit in my car?  Am I crazy to buy a huge chandelier?!  What am I doing here?  I finally decided to just bite the bullet and purchase the beast!  With some help from the seller, we got it strapped in to my trunk and I made it home.  I brought it inside and put it on my dining room table.  It was then that I decided I would be keeping it.  It made such a statement in it's size, I thought it would be the perfect over-the-top light fixture in my dining room.

In it's original color.

But the color was completely wrong for my space and very dated looking, so it was off to the hardware store for my go-to problem solver: spray paint.  Before I went though, I had a few tubes of craft paint on hand and decided to test out some color possibilities.

Some of the color tests.

I eventually decided on royal blue to match the chairs at my dining table.  Silver was a very close second and for a while it looked like it might be shocking pink and hung in my daughters room.  The thought of her jumping from her bed to the chandelier and swinging from it quickly determined the fixtures place in the dining room!

In progress

Four cans of spray paint later, I had blue hair, blue skin, blue boogers and a BIG BLUE chandelier!

Now to hang it........I needed help since it is pretty heavy, so I recruited some friends.  After measuring from the ceiling to determine the best height, we adjusted the chain length and set about devising a plan on the best way to get it up there!  I should mention, at this point I still wasn't completely sold on having a light that big over my dining table.  I have 10' cielings, but even at that, this thing seemed HUGE!  My friends convinced me that it would be such a "wow" factor, I had to do it.  So back to hanging.  It took three of us to hoist it up, get it on the chain which was already attached to the ceiling plate and keep it balanced while I snaked the wires up through the collar to the ceiling box.  Finally, everything was wired, hung and ready to go.  I set about putting all the bulbs in (there are 24 bulbs in this sucker!)

You can get some idea of scale when I stand next to it!

 I went out to the breaker box, turned the circuit back on and...............

Taaaa- Daaaaa!!

I put it on a dimmer.  This is the lowest setting....

......and this is the highest at 600 watts!

Oh. My. Goodness. It. Is. So. Cool!  This was one of the riskier design choices I've made, but I think it really paid off in the end.  And if I do ever decide to move it, there is always spray paint!

Any guesses as to how much I paid for it?

I am really happy with the way it looks, the drama it gives the room and the pop of color it brings.  And I will always have plenty of light for dinner parties!  These pictures don't quite show just how big this thing really is, but trust me, it is BIG BLUE!!  The only thing I lament?  Not getting a picture of it strapped into the trunk of my VW Jetta!

I hope you enjoyed your visit, I appreciate you stopping by!  Won't you please consider following me on the right side bar?
xoxo,