A Chandelier for Baby Emma

My cousin is expecting her first baby… tiny Emma!  A few months ago she asked me whether I thought she could do a chandelier make-over for the nursery.  Of course I knew she could!

But life has been pretty hectic for my cousin, and I knew she hadn’t had time to do one.  So I decided to do one for her baby shower.

It didn’t take long to find just what I was looking for.

I removed the candle sleeves, taped over the wiring, and primed with Zinsser’s spray primer.

I liked the white look, but I checked her Pinterest board for the nursery, and noticed the chandeliers my cousin pinned were metal, with lots of crystals.  I decided to try to go along those lines.

First I spray painted with a silver metal spray paint.  But the finish wasn’t right.

So I went to Menards and found some metallic silver paint.  I mixed it with some black acrylic craft paint I had and painted it on with an artist’s paintbrush.

But still it wasn’t quite what I was hoping, so I cut a small piece of sponge away from my kitchen scrubbing sponge

and dipped it into the paint. 

Then I dabbed it on all over.  I kept dabbing, and adding more black and metallic paint to my paper plate mixture until I was finally satisfied.

See?  Look what a mess I made of my fingers!  (it was fun!)

  

I liked it, but I wanted it to have a little more texture, so I took some pearl white metallic paint and dabbed and smeared it all over the chandelier.  I wasn’t actually sure what it would look like!

But I ended up loving it!

It added a very pretty reflective kind of quality over the silver.

Next I made a sleeve for the chain out of some scrap sheet fabric.

Then I marked the places on the chandelier top and candle holders where I wanted holes for crystal beads.

I am so blessed to have a helpful husband!  Smart, clever, good with tools, handsome…

Oh, right, ahem, well anyway Glenn drilled the little holes with a tiny drill bit and I was ready to decorate!

After looking in a couple of stores, I had decided to order a large spool wrapped with a long string of crystal beads from an online company.  After they arrived, Alix and I took thin jewelry wire and carefully wound it around the beads and poked the wire through the holes Glenn had made. To keep them in place, we used hot glue.

We draped the strands from the top of the chandelier to each of the candle holders.  Then between the candle holders, we draped more strands and twisted the wire ends under the little holders around the tops of the arms and hot glued them into place.

Finally, I found some extra crystal pendants from the stash I had used for our mudroom chandelier.  I threaded a wire through them and twisted one to each candle holder.

All I needed now was to wash the candle sleeves and get some little light bulbs!

And here it is!

A close-up of the pendants,

       

and the strings of crystal beads

Before and After

My cousin was very surprised!  And the happy look on her face when she opened it, was the best gift she could give me!

I hope she won’t mind me putting this picture of her and her Sweetie here!

Congratulations Chris and Beth Ann!  Can’t wait to see little Emma very soon!