Yellow Chandelier Makeover

One of my absolute most favorite makeovers to date is this colorful, fabulous chandelier. 

And for 3$??? What????

Seriously.

It was a huge part of getting my whole dining room makeover look to come together and was one of the first big projects to start that room's makeover. 

After the floors were put in :) 

Let's talk about what it started as first...

It started as a super basic, nickel-colored chandelier that I randomly found in the Goodwill clearance center. They couldn't guarantee that it would work but for 3$? Definitely worth trying it out. 

Sad story that there was a guy there that had it in his hands at first and then set it down.

After I snatched it up and went to go pay, he totally sat there with a sad puppy-dog face.

And I may have walked away feeling super giddy about my score :) 

I knew it would need a little facelift and it took me a while to decide how to proceed with it. 

But here's the supply list for what I ended up doing: 

Supplies: 

*Yellow Spraypaint

*White Spraypaint

*Several packages of varying sizes unfinished wood beads (found at Hobby Lobby)

*Turquoise glass beads

*Package of Jump Rings (in the jewelry aisle)

*Drill and small drill bit

*Jewelry wire

*Unfinished picket fences (found at Hobby Lobby) 

And I tried my best to get pictures along the way. 

Feel free to ask more questions if you need too :)

First things first, I knew I wanted to jazz the chandelier up more than just with paint. 

Though it would have looked super amazing in just it's new yellow coat. 

I found these unfinished wood balls at Hobby Lobby and knew they'd be perfect for adding 'beaded' detail in between each light fixture on the chandelier.

However, they didn't have holes in them :/ 

Cue the drill and drill bit. 

Very carefully use your drill bit to drill small holes all the way through the beads.

This got frustrating but it was doable.

I used a styrofoam sheet to hold the balls in place as we drilled. 

After drilling your holes, use toothpicks to hold them in place on the styrofoam so they can get a nice coat of white paint. 

I used my gloss white that I love by Rustoleum. 

Make sure to let them dry well before flipping them over to get the other sides. 

After getting all my wooden beads ready, I used beading wire to string them together.

I used my small glass turquoise beads in between each white bead for a little more color & contrast. 

I also tapered the sizes of the white beads by starting with large beads at the bottom of the strand and moving to smaller beads as they reached the top. 

To add the beaded strands onto my chandelier, I used a metal drill bit to drill tiny holes around the top of the chandelier- directly up and across from where they'd be attaching to the light fixture part. 

Then drill a tiny hole on the back side of the light fixture area. 

Use jump rings to tie your string to and attach them to each of the holes you drilled. 

Now you have gorgeous beaded strands added!!

Honestly, I went crazy trying to figure out what what to put around the light fixtures.

Of course, they originally had glass globes of some sort around them and I could have replaced them with some.

But I just wasn't feeling it.

I tried several different things before randomly stretching one of these wooden picket fences around the rims. 

I loved the texture it gave!!

So they got a coat of yellow spraypaint and I popped them in.

They aren't permanently adhered, once wrapped around the lights, they were nice and snug.

And easily replaceable if need be. 

And, if you're wondering, I was slightly worried about painted wood going around hot lightbulbs but I've had it up three years and never had a problem.

I was very observant of this for a while.

But we use this room A LOT and I've never seen anything crazy happen with it.

They're not close enough to the bulbs to get hot enough for anything to happen.

Tips on spraypainting your chandelier would be to find something to hang it from.

I used a hanging basket hook. 

Completely random but it was perfect.

I made sure it was crazy hard in the ground and then hung it from the hook. 

I was able to get to all sides of the chandelier and it's chain that way. 

It took several lights coats to get a good coverage and then I sealed it with a clear gloss coat. 

Whew.

I feel like I laid a lot on you :) 

But it turned out so absolutely gorgeous.

It's one of the things I get the most compliments from in the house and, rest assured, I will be finding a way to take it with us when we leave.

True story. 

I was so incredibly happy that it worked. 

I had my doubts considering where I got it from but we hooked it up before painting it and I was so giddy when it lit up!!!!

There was a fan in this place originally so one thing we did have to do was get a ceiling medallion for the ceiling. 

I hate how expensive these things are!!!

But I buckled down and got one from Lowes and it added a great finishing touch. 

Isn't it crazy how incredibly different it looks now?

Sometimes I have a hard time believing it used to be a boring old silver light fixture.

Here's a reminder of how far it actually came...

This was definitely one of my more involved projects but it has remained in my top 5 favorites for the past few years :) 

So that means it's pretty awesome in my book.

What do you think?
Are you in love with it's new glamorous look??

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