Budget DIY has become more popular in recent times and homeowners across the UK have started to make their own features to include in their homes. Some people would say that making your own features is tacky, however if done correctly and with some style it can be an affordable way to create a unique feature for your home. This article is going to focus on making your own original light feature for your house, in particular making your own chandelier.
The first step to making your own chandelier is to decide what design you want to go for. Do you want a modern chrome chandelier for your dining room or a pink chandelier for your daughter’s room? There are so many different materials and styles that can be used when making chandeliers and you should think thoroughly about what will best suit the room in which it will be hanging.
The next step in creating you own chandelier to go out and buy the appropriate materials. The best places to look are your local DIY stores such as B&Q and your local craft shops. You will need to find appropriate materials for the main components of the light feature. For the arms of the chandelier PVC piping is a great option, it is lightweight, can be formed and once coated is easy to apply paint to. You will need adhesive to join all of the arms to each other or the shaft of the fixture. A great adhesive to use is plumber’s putty which can be found in most DIY shops. The final parts needed to make the chandelier are the parts that are needed for it to be functional and to make it truly unique, the bulbs, the sockets, wires and all of the accessories you wish to add.
Now comes the difficult part, the assembly of the fixture. Only you can know how exactly you want the chandelier to look and therefore it is hard to give exact advice about how to construct it. To help you along here are a few tips which will make the process easier. The first tip and thing that people often forget about is to ensure you do not join the arms together before threading the wire through each arm and connect it all up, it’s much harder or sometimes even impossible to do once the main body of the chandelier is assembled. The next tip is not to over complicate the design; you may find that your original design was way too complicated, in this case just try to minimize unnecessary features. The final tip is not to have too many lights on the chandelier and not to make the feature too large. Too many lights can make the electrical work complicated and on an overly large feature any small mistakes you make will be more noticeable and you run the risk of the feature looking tacky or cheap.
