Faux Shell Chandelier - Part 4

So, we're finally here in the home stretch.  All the hardware is assembled and all your strands of shells are ready.  The only thing to do now is to attach the shells and finishing metal and then to install the chandelier.

First up, you need to suspend the hardware somehow to attach the shells.  What we did was use some spare pieces of 2 by 4 and attach them to our mantle with clamps.  Then we just placed the ceiling plate across the boards.

Our suspension set-up

Then I started attaching the strands from the bottom.  I used pliers to open a jump ring, put it around the basket wire, and then close it.  It's a very simple process, which, unfortunately I didn't photograph because it takes both hands.  I put the bottom row on the bottom of the basket, one box in from the edge and each strand was 7 shells long.

For the second layer I attached the strands one box up from the bottom on the outside edge.  Like the bottom layer these were attached with jump rings.  Each strand was 6 shells long.

Finally, the top layer was attached with hot glue.  These are the strands that were 5 shells long and didn't have a hole punched on either end.  I didn't bother with the punching holes at the top of the strands because I knew I would be gluing them on.  Gluing is faster than attaching with jump rings, but the downside is that you can see the glue through the shells.  Not cool.

To remedy this we added another piece of aluminum to the top all the way around the chandelier.  We used the same type of L-shaped aluminum that we used for the ceiling box and painted it bronze with the same spray paint.  The trim pieces were cut on an angle just like what we did for the ceiling box.  They were then screwed to the top in two places on each side.

A view after the top trim has been attached.  

And, here it is, fully assembled and waiting to be installed:

Installing the chandelier is not too tough, but you will need two people, most likely, at least at first when you screw it in. Once it's hanging from the mounting box, one person can join the wires with the wire nuts and then close things up. This is a good tutorial that describes how to wire the chandelier: How to Install a Chandelier

So, now you hopefully have a beautiful chandelier that didn't cost you an arm and a leg to create. Plus, you can say you made it yourself! :)

Faux Shell Chandelier - Part 3

In this installment we'll discuss how the base was created, and attach it to the rest of the chandelier.  In case you missed the posts, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.

The base is formed from a piece of sheet metal (16 gauge, steel), some aluminum angle stock, and a handful of machines screws, washers and nuts.

First, we cut the aluminum into 4 pieces, and beveled the ends like the sides of a picture frame so they can fit together nicely into a square.  The angles don't need to be perfect, as they will be hidden from view, but it is good to be close, just in case.

The four aluminum pieces laid out on our stainless sheet metal. 

Once they are arranged on the plate, drill the holes for the machine screws.  You can use some double sided tape to hold everything in place while doing this.  Then bolt the pieces together using machine screws and nuts.  We opted for some screws with a hex head (rather than a screwdriver slot) to give it a better look).

One side attached, three others pre-drilled.

For attaching the base to the rest of the chandelier, we used a pair of aluminum tubes.  Drill a pair of holes into the support rods into the metal strips that are attached to the top of the basket.  Then drill a similarly spaced pair of holes into the base.  These holes should be slightly larger than the diameter of the tubing.

See the holes in the middle of the strips?  The holes in the sheet metal base need to be the same distance apart.

Finally, we'll need to drill some holes for mounting the base to the ceiling.  Most electrical boxes for ceiling fixtures have a pair of screws in opposite corners.  You'll want to carefully measure the layout of those and transfer it to your base.  We drilled 4 holes in a square pattern, and put dummy screws in two of them to even out the look.  You'll need some very long screws for the other two that can reach the threading on the electrical box.  You'll also want to be sure to use washers on these for extra support.

See the 4 screws in the square shape in the middle?  Two support the chandelier and 2 are fakes.  

There are several options of attaching the final pieces together.  We used a die set to cut threads into the ends of the aluminum tubes.  Then the tubes were inserted into the holes we previously drilled, and large nuts were used to secure it.  As an alternative, you could make a few cuts into the end of the tubes, about 1/2" deep.  Then after inserting the tubes into the holes, you can bend the tabs outward like a flower to secure it. Once the base is attached to the ceiling gravity will keep everything tight.  This allows for some movement in case the chandelier is bumped which could reduce the risk of injury to whoever bumped it and to the chandelier itself.

Everything painted and assembled

Once you have the basket attached to the ceiling base with the tubes it is time to get everything painted. We used a bronze spray paint to match the hardware in our house. Most of the basket itself will not be visible so you don't have to go too crazy making sure everything matches exactly.

After the paint is dry all you need to do is run the wire up through one of the tubes.  You should have at least 6 inches extra at the top, and a foot would be even better (you can always trim it down while installing it).

Wiring going up the tube...

Extra wire coming out the top.  

 In Part 4 I will talk about adding the shells to the base, which is quite easy, and finally adding the finishing touches and installing the chandelier in your room.

Faux Shell Chandelier - Part 2

In Part 1 I talked about making the shells and stringing them together with jump rings.  In this part I'll go over what I used to make the structure that you'll hang the shells on.

As I mentioned in Part 1, one of my biggest gripes about the other tutorials I found is that they never addressed wiring or hanging the chandelier.  I wanted something that would look professional when it was done and for that to happen it needs to be hard-wired in the way commercial light fixtures are.  So, we needed to build a nice looking structure.

Here is what you're going to need:

• A metal basket
• Piece of sheet metal for the top plate
• L-shaped aluminum (for the inset of the mounting box and also as trim)
• Metal strip
• Aluminum tubing (copper would also work if the diameter works for you)
• Machine screws to create the mounting box
• Light sockets with mounting hardware
• Spray paint in the metal finish of your choice
• Wire
• Drill, Hacksaw, Screwdriver

For the base of my chandelier I used a metal basket that I found at Homegoods.  Here's a picture of the basket along with the sheet metal, metal strip and L-shaped aluminum that we bought at Menard's:

A couple things to note... We bought a piece of sheet metal that was about the same proportion as the basket.  If you're using a round basket as your base you'll have to cut the circle shape yourself, most likely, but that is doable.  Or you could try and use a square piece for the ceiling plate, which would probably look fine as well.  Also, the box is going to be supporting the weight of the chandelier, so you want a piece of metal that is thick/sturdy enough to handle that.

The first thing we did was cut the handles off of the basket.  My husband used his dremmel tool to do that.

Next, we needed a way to hang the basket.  We decided that we wanted 2 tubes going from the basket up to the box on the ceiling.  So, we cut the metal strip to be wide enough to go across the basket and attached it to the top with some machine screws.  We had the tools to tap (create threads in) the metal of the basket.  If you don't have a tap set, you could just as easily drill all the way through the basket and use a nut on the other side, or a sheet metal screw may also work:

Cut the strip to the width of the basket

Pre-drill holes in the strip and the basket or use a tapping tool to add threads.

Attach with screws and drill holes for the wiring that will attach the brackets to the ceiling plate.

The next step was to attach the light sockets to the underside of the basket.  So, we flipped the basket over and attached the sockets using large washers and nuts and bolts.  The sockets we purchased were designed to go on the end of a threaded pipe, which are often used for lighting fixtures.  The pipe was longer than needed, so we were able to cut them in half:

A whole threaded pipe and one cut in half

A view from the top down after the sockets were attached.

View from the bottom

It doesn't look like it due to the angle of this picture but the lights are equally spaced and centered lengthwise

For the wiring, we used some 18 gauge lamp cord (about 6 feet).  The sockets were wired in parallel (see here for an explanation on what that means).  You'll want enough wire coming off the last socket to make it from where you expect the chandelier to hang to the ceiling, plus an extra foot or two. Make sure that there is no contact between anything that should have electricity going to it (wires, socket screws) and things that shouldn't (the basket, or any of the mounting hardware).

Depending on the exact style of sockets you have, you may want to use something like electrical tape to cover up any bare wire or screw terminals.  We used some liquid electrical tape, and painted several coats on to completely cover any bare metal.

Close up of the socket with electrical and painted electrical tape.

Stay tuned for Part 3 where we'll talk about building the base plate that goes on the ceiling and attaching the basket to the ceiling plate and finally, Part 4 where I'll go over attaching the shells and installing the chandelier.

Faux Shell Chandelier - Part 1

A couple weeks ago I was browsing Pinterest looking for a chandelier for my parents' dining room.  I have been helping them redecorate their living and dining rooms and they had just painted both rooms.  The dining room looks really nice but I felt like the old chandelier and sconces could be better.  Then I found the tutorials on how to make a faux capiz shell chandelier.  I knew right then I had to make one...

I read a bunch of tutorials, and the thing that bugged me is that none of them really looked professional in how they were wired (most weren't wired at all) and mounted.  That kind of thing doesn't fly with me.  See, I love DIY, but I hate it when my DIY projects look DIY.  I want things to look professional.  So, what you are about to read is the ultimate DIY faux shell chandelier project.  Here are a couple pictures of the end result:

In part 1 I'll focus on making the shells and getting them ready to hang onto your chandelier base. In future parts I'll talk about getting the base set up and wired and finally, installed. So, let's get started.

For the shells themselves you will need:

• Wax paper 
• Iron
• Parchment paper
• Iridescent paint
• Paper cutter
• Jump rings in the metal finish of your choice (I used black)
• Hole punch
• 2 pairs of pliers

If you've seen any of the other tutorials you probably know that the basic gist of things is that you iron several sheets of wax paper together between two sheets of parchment.  I personally used 4 layers of wax paper and for my chandelier I used just over 2 boxes of paper.  My chandelier is quite large (33" X 16").

I started by cutting sheets of paper about 18" long. I cut an entire box worth of wax paper into sheets. I used my paper slicer (picture below) to make the cuts clean. I was not worried about the sheets being exactly the same length so I just positioned my paper cutter about 18" from the edge of the counter top and pulled the paper to the edge to measure it.

I bought that paper cutter from Amazon (it's Swingline brand).  I felt like it was a big expense when I bought it, but I use it ALL the time.  In fact, I was using it earlier today on a totally different project.  If you're at all crafty, I highly recommend buying a paper slicer like that.  

After I had sheets that were about 18" long I ironed 4 sheets of paper together. I did this on my kitchen counter (which is stone, don't do this on a laminate counter top!). I placed a sheet of parchment down, then my 4 sheets of wax paper and another sheet of parchment. I started in the middle and pushed out toward the edges when I was ironing in order to push out any air bubbles between the sheets.

Once I had all of the sheets from the first box ironed together I painted them with iridescent paint.  This is something I haven't seen mentioned in any of the tutorials I read, but it really makes the paper look like shells.  This is the paint I used (from Hobby Lobby):

I didn't worry too much about the paint being uniform on the sheet or anything, since I figure the randomness would make the shells seem more real.  Also, in case you're wondering, I tried a couple other things to try and achieve an iridescent finish (like the glitter in the background here).  This paint was the best thing I came up with.  

Once the sheets were dry, I cut them with my paper slicer.  I cut the sheets into strips that were 2.5" wide and then cut them into individual pieces that were 1.25" wide by 2.5" high.  Once I had a ton of those cut (I had to cut 24 pages worth, I think) I punched holes.  I used a 1/16" hole punch.

I didn't want to punch holes in the shells if the holes weren't needed.  So, for the last shell in each strand I only needed a hole punched on one end instead of at both ends.  In order to figure out how many shells needed only a single hole punched I had to do some math...

I decided to make the longest layer 7 shells long, the middle layer 6 shells long, and the top layer 5 shells long.  I did some rough math to figure out how many strands I would need by measuring the circumference of the metal basket at each level and dividing by 1" (allowing for 1/8" overlap on each side).   So, because the top of the basket (the widest layer) was 98" around (33" + 33" + 16" + 16" = 98") I figured I would need approximately 98 strands and 98 shells with single holes for that layer.  I did the same math for the other layers.

Note:  In reality, I didn't end up using quite that many strands; I pretty much subtracted 10 from each of those numbers in the end.  I believe I ended up needing 88 strands for the top layer, 82 for the middle layer and 78 for the bottom layer, something like that.  So, you may want to stop  a little short of making all the strands you think you'll need and re-assess once you actually get to assembling the chandelier.  

For assembling the strands you'll need your pliers to open and close the jump rings.  I got my jump rings at Michael's in the iron color to coordinate with the bronze finish of the rest of the hardware.  I ended up buying 9 boxes of jump rings thinking that I was way over-buying, but it turned out that I used all of them:

So, basically, once you have holes punched in the shells, you start hooking them together with the jump rings.  Actually, the jump ring packaging has a pretty good image of what I was doing.  First you open the ring with the pliers, then add 2 shells face to face or back to back (assuming you only painted one side, which is what I did), then close the ring.  You will want to make sure the ends of the jump ring are touching because the paper is thin and if there is any space it can slip out.

Once you have your strands made it's time to attach them to the hardware, which I'll cover in upcoming parts, so stay tuned for Part 2!