DIY Globe Chandelier

You’ve probably heard of them.  They’ve acquired a name on the www that first makes you gasp and then realize, “Ha!  Who knew?!”  Few like them, most hate them.  What are they?  ‘Boob’ lights.  We are the not-so-proud owners of two…er, one.  We used to have two but this one in our entry way…


got swapped for this:

Inspired by this globe chandelier from Shades of Light (designed by Young House Love) -

…and this DIY chandelier that the incredibly creative Mandi from Vintage Revivals made, we whipped up one of our own for around $20.  Since you already know the ‘why’ (décor shouldn’t look like body parts yo), here’s the fairly simple ‘how’.
 


First up, the actual light.  I found this miniature chandelier at Goodwill last year ($5 holla) and have been hoarding it away ever since, just waiting for this project to get the green light.

The only thing I needed to make our globe chandi was the light kit on the inside.  If I didn’t have this light, I could also have purchased a pendant light from a Home Improvement store (like this one) that would work just as well.  If buying a second-hand chandelier and taking it apart intimidates you, don’t let it.  It’s so easy.  There’s no re-wiring or sawing or anything like that involved, in my experience anyway.  There’s just lots of unscrewing and un-piecing.  Starting with the top, I simply worked my around my entire thrifted chandi, unscrewing whatever could be unscrewed.

   


After a few minutes of doing that, I had the light kit separated.


Next, the hanging baskets I used to create the globe.  I used two of these from Lowe’s:

Here are a couple other baskets that I think would be fantastic for this project: 
(Top: this one. Bottom: this one.)

All I had to do with the baskets is separate them from their chains (Lenten pun?), which was as simple as removing three clips.  I saved those clips to attach the two baskets like so:

If you wanted your baskets to be touching vs. having space between them like mine, you could use zip ties or smaller clips/hooks.  Just make sure you remember to paint them the same color as the rest of your chandi.  (Side note:  You might’ve noticed in the above pic that the lines on the basket don’t match up.  I didn’t realize this until after everything was painted.  If you’d like yours to line up, put a few baskets together in-store before you buy to find two that are constructed with similar spacing.) 

The last thing we had to do before painting was drill a hole in the bottom of one of the baskets, the one that would be on top, so that we could attach the light kit from the thrifted chandelier.

Anthony did this using a drill bit that was the same size as the threaded rod at the very top of the light kit.  You’ll see what I mean a little further down. 

So, paint.  With the baskets being a darker metal and the light kit a shiny gold, the whole shebang needed to be painted.  In prep for paint, I carefully taped off all electrical wiring and anything I didn’t want painted.  Then I spray painted everything with a couple of thin coats of primer.  (In my haste to get this painted that day, I forgot to take a picture of the primer I used so, an hour after these things were primed, I accidentally grabbed
the wrong primer and snapped the below shot.  I actually used Clean Metal Primer by Rustoleum.  Sorry!  I’m not sure if there’s really that much of a difference between the two primers though.)
(See where we had to drill the hole for the light kit?  Some baskets have an open bottom and some have a round plate over them, like the ones we bought.  The ones with an open bottom would require an extra large washer or even a piece of circular wood with a hole drilled into its center to accommodate a light kit.)

Once the primer was dry, I painted everything with several thin and even coats of Krylon spray paint in Catalina Mist (the rest of what I had leftover from painting these).

Next up, assembly.  Putting the chandelier together was a cinch.  All I had to do was attach the light kit to the top basket and then attach the bottom basket to the top with the clips.  Here’s a picture showing how the top basket is placed on the top of the light kit (the blue line representing the basket):

The threaded rod goes up through the hole in the basket and then the top piece in my hand just screws right on to hold it together.  Last you attach your chain and ceiling cap (technical term?  I dunno…) and mount it to the ceiling like you would a regular light fixture.  I’m lacking a tutorial on Anthony’s electrical install but here’s one for ya. 

I thought there’d be a few more steps in there because I figured that after we removed the old light, we’d have to add popcorn texture to the ceiling and do a little ceiling paint touch-up but none of that was needed.  ‘Twas exciting to see the ceiling look like it had never been covered by a boob light…at least I thought so!  #lesswork

Lights out:

And !surprise! - the super-cool pattern the light emits onto the ceiling and walls when on:

And that’s it!  A fairly simple and very effective way to get chest parts off your ceiling...call it a reduction.  ;) 

.           .           .

P.S.  We’re still chugging our way through the entry way.  In case you missed it:
>> the hook system <<
>> the roman shade (made from a curtain panel + a mini-blind!) <<
>> the thrifted mirror <<

P.P.S.  It’s party time!  Linking our work-in-progress entry way up with East Coast Creative’s home décor rendezvous!  You really should go check out some of the incredible projects over there!