I am so excited to be able to share this DIY with y’all!
If you’re anything like me, you didn’t come here to read a whole big story before the tutorial so I’ll just get right to it!
Materials:
Beads
25mm wood bead– 10 packs ($3.06 per pack of 30)
20mm wood bead– 14 packs ($2.37 per pack of 50)
16mm wood bead– 6 packs ($2.76 per pack of 100)
14mm wood bead – 35 packs ($1.86 per pack of 20)
10mm wood bead – 1 pack ($2.19 per pack of 300)
For the Frame
- 5″ WT Flush x2
- 9″ WT 1/2″ Recessed x1
- 20″ WT 1/2″ Recessed x2
If you don’t already have a ceiling light canopy kit you can find that at a hardware store or on amazon to match whichever finish you desire. Canopy kit
Spool of fishing line for tying the bead to the chandelier frame. Or another option could be floral wire. If you use fishing line you may want a needle holder or even a hemostat for tying tight knots.
Some extra lamp cord: please have a professional electrician hook up the extra lamp cord to your socket.
For Dying your Chandelier:
A big bucket or trash can
If it’s not a new/ clean bucket or trash can, then liners for that container.
A gallon of paint in your desired color
Before I get this tutorial party started I need to give a disclaimer: I am not claiming to be a professional electrician. I am not responsible for any malfunctions. Please consult a professional electrician before attempting this tutorial.
The first thing you need to do is figure out the dimensions you want your chandelier to be. The overall height of my chandelier is 24 inches. The overall width is 20 inches. See drawing below.
Frame Construction
Please excuse the glamorous laundry closet back drop
Note: The frame we built will not be exactly like the frame you are building. We used part of an old chandelier and rebar and my husbands welding skills… I wanted to give you a tutorial for a frame that could be built by practically anyone sans welder/ skilled husband.
To construct the frame you will need:
- Washer top lamp wire5″ WT Flush times two
- 9″ WT 1/2″ Recessed times one
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- 20″ WT 1/2″ Recessed times two
Step One
Grab a 9″ all thread lamp rod (or a length closest to that), two washers, two nuts, a 5″ washer top flush ring and your screw collar loop. Next, screw a nut down the rod about two inches. Next slide a washer, the 5″ ring and another washer. Then screw down your second nut until it is snug against the top washer. Next, add your screw collar loop to the top. Note: if there isn’t enough room at the top for your screw collar loop, adjust the nuts down until there is enough room.
Step Two
Now get your light socket (with the extra lamp cord already added) and two barrel couplings. Attach one coupling to the end of the 9″ rod with the 5″ wash top ring. Next, fish the wire through the pipe until it comes out of the screw collar loop. Pull the cord out the rest of the way. Next screw your socket into the barrel coupling you just attached, until snug. Next add your second barrel coupling to the bottom of the socket.
Step Three
Grab a 6″ all thread lamp rod (or a length closest to that), two nuts, two washers and a 20″ recessed washer top ring. Screw a nut down two inches on one end of the rod. Next you will slide a washer, then the 20″ ring, and a washer- in that order down to meet the nut. Add your second nut after that and make sure there is enough room at the top to screw into the barrel coupling on the light socket. Once you have it adjusted about righ screw the end with the nut into the barrel coupling at the bottom of the light socket. Now, you adjust up or down if needed.
Step Four
Now grab your other 20″ ring and do the same process to attach the ring to the all-thread pipe as described in step three. Measure a distance of one inch from the bottom of the top 20″ ring to the top of the second 20″ ring. Continue adding the remaining two rings using the drawing as a guide for distance between. Make sure if you want to cap the bottom of the chandelier with a big wood ball that you have enough room for it. If you don’t have a wood ball or desire to add one, make sure the last ring is flush at the bottom. Another option would be to buy a cap or a lamp finial to finish it off. That is a perfect opportunity to get creative and have a unique piece.
Adding the Beads
Ok, I really struggled to figure out how I’m could explain this. Bare with me, we will get through this together!
When tying each tier I suggest stringing from the bottom up. So I used a “surgeon knot” and “square knot” to tie my fishing line to the frame. I am not good at explaining these so youtube and google would be great resources for this. Or if you know of a better knot, please use that and share in comments.
Always give a firm but not too firm tug on the strand you just tied before moving on. This will ensure you are tying your knots tight enough so you don’t get to the end and realize your chandelier is in jeopardy of falling apart and then have to start over. Not fun.
Now, I have provided the patterns I used for each tier, BUT you most likely will need to adjust this to fit your own chandelier. What I mean by this is, your beads may not hang just right so you may need to add or take away a bead or two. So string what I suggested and go from there.
You will know if you have added too many or too little beads because the strands will not line up properly. See photo above and try to pick out the odd ones.
Bead order is listed from top to bottom…
Top tier bead pattern:
10mm x 1
14mm x 4
16mm x 6
20mm x 8
25mm x 4
Don’t know what to call the next part…wait…
The space between:
14mm x 2 for the space between the (two 20″ rings) top tier and the second tier.
Second tier bead pattern:
25mm x 2
20mm x 5
16mm x 2
Third tier bead pattern:
14mm x 2
16mm x 2
20mm x 1
16mm x 2
14mm x 2
Swags
Top Tier swags:
10mm x 22 x 5 swags
Middle tier swags:
14mm x 28 x 5 swags
IMPORTANT NOTE; Be sure to stop and check the alignment of your strands every few lines you string. You don’t want to get close to being finished and realize the alignment is completely off and have to start cutting. That makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it…
If you have any questions please feel free to ask in the comments! Also, visit my instagram page @bekah.nikole under the “Chandy ” highlight for videos and explanations.
Dying Your Work of Art
This part is going to be tricky for me to explain because I kind of didn’t know what I was doing when I went to color my beads. A part of me thought I should have dyed all of them first but once I plunged the chandelier into the paint mixture I realized that I inadvertently made the right decision because the beads would have floated to the top…
Here’s what I did but you may need to do something different. If you need my advice for your specific chandelier than I encourage you to DM me on Instagram. I’d be more than happy to help and give suggestions.
I added a little water and then a little paint and then a little more water and then all the paint. I stirred it as best as I could and then submerged the chandelier.
NOTE: I suggest taping plastic over your light cluster before submerging. We almost didn’t do that… oops
I let the chandelier sit a total of 6 hours, and the reason for 6 hours was because that’s how long it took me to grocery shop, do chores and put the baby to bed before I could get to it again. You may not leave yours in as long, depending on how concentrated you want the color to be and you may want to leave yours in longer. Just keep in mind that the wood will soak up the water and swell and possibly split if you leave it in too long. There are only a few on my chandelier that did that, but I don’t mind that.
When I pulled the chandelier out I noticed that the bottom was darker than the top because the more dense paint sunk to the bottom during that 6 hours, SO I suggest frequent stirring. But if you don’t want to do that you can do what I did which was: we poured out the water on the top and got down to the more concentrated part of the mixture. I dipped a solo cup in and then poured it over the top tier. I really liked how this made my chandelier look and it was all by accident and not thinking about how the paint would settle. Yay for my awesome skills! Wait, that’s luck :).
I hope I covered everything. This is definitely a big project but so doable if you stay organized and pre-plan well. I mentioned this a couple times but, please DM me on Instagram if you need advice or have troubleshooting questions! That will also help me edit and update this tutorial for others who try after you and I.
Y’all are the best for stopping by! Let me know if you try this and share your creations on Instagram using the hashtag #bekahnikoletutorial
I love your creativity and how what you create always turns out beautiful!!!
Thank you!