DIY Ceiling Fan Chandelier!

As promised I'm posting about my ceiling fan.  

Or should I say what to do when you want a chandelier but have to have a ceiling fan!  

Last time I showed you the ceiling medallion we put up.   

Now let's dig into the good stuff. 

Warning:

This is a long post! 

It starts with a PVC pipe!  

OK, I know this sounds crazy, 

but by now you have to know that Crazy is my middle name! 

After racking my brain FOREVER on what I could use to turn an idea into reality, my son gave me some inspiration! After he went to Comic Con, (a comic convention), he was telling me how he saw a suit of chain-mail made from small PVC pipe that they had sliced really thin and cut a slit in and then woven together. Poor kid, I think I zoned out on the rest of the conversation as my mind mapped out how I could use PVC pipe!!

I chose 1 1/4 inch PVC because that fit the crystals I was going to use.  I bought a 5 foot section for $3.61 at Lowe's.  I wanted each ring to be the same thickness, so I clamped a scrap piece of wood to my saw.  Then I just butted the end of the pipe up to the wood each time I cut a ring. 

 Just make sure you clamp it really tight or it might slip! 

 (Let's just say my rings are all very similar in thickness!!)

I cut mine about 1/4 inch thick.

I cut rings until I felt it was no longer safe to hold on to the pipe, but I still had over 100 rings when I was done.  Even though I had used a brand new blade made for plastic, I still had little burs on many of the rings as well as some saw marks.  So I then sanded both sides of each ring.

I also sanded off the black printing on the edges, so the rings were completely white.  

I must say this is a messy process. 

 Instead of sawdust you get white PVC snow!! 

Just make sure you wear safety glasses!!

OK, now that I had my basic building pieces I was ready to start putting this baby together.

If you promise not to laugh I will tell you what I used to create this ceiling fan chandy. 

In true Batchelor Way I used what I had, I only purchase the items printed in red for this project.  

Everything else I had.

5 foot tube of 1 1/4 inch PVC pipe

Old lamp shade

1 crystal Christmas decoration

Crystal drops snagged from a second hand shop

Giant crystal prism

Jewelry eye & head pins

Prescription pill bottle 

Left over window film

Gold Washi tape

Roof flashing metal

Hey, you promised not to laugh!!

 Now that you are thinking I'm totally crazy let me tell ya what I did with this weird assortment.  

I had this lamp shade I had bought at a second hand shop a few years ago.  It was in great shape when I bought it.  I thought I would just attach it to the ceiling fan as is.  But it blocked too much light and made my room feel dark.  I am very much a light person, so this was a "no go".  

Then someone spilled water on the shade and basically ruined it.  I cut the ring off from the top of the shade.  Below is a picture of the Christmas decoration I bought from Tia Pan Trading at their After Christmas clearance sale for $1 I think. 

 (Yes, I bought this a couple of Christmas' ago)

I took each individual crystal off.  Then I started playing with my rings to get a lay out I liked.  I measured the circumference of the lampshade ring, which was 42".  So I made my ring layout 42" long,

(see photo below).  

Once I had the rings how I liked them, I work up a pattern of how the crystals would be.  I had small drops and small octagons.  As mentioned in my supply list, I also had some bigger crystal drops I had bought a few years ago at DI and I worked those in along the bottom.  

Warning:

  Your husband may feel left out with you spending so much time with white PVC rings 

and make his own PVC ring creation, Argh!! 

Once I had it all laid out how I wanted, I started to assemble it.  I drilled small holes in the rings and attached them with the jewelry head pins.  I bought a big package of Head/Eye Pins that had assorted sizes; some flat heads and some with eyes. 

 I purchased it for $2.50 at Hobby Lobby on sale.  I used the pins that had eyes in places I wanted to hang a crystal.  Once you drill holes you just push the pin through and use needle nose pliers to curl up the wire on the back.  

This secures it so the wire won't slip out. 

 This part seemed to take for ever.  

I attached each column ring by ring.  I then attached a column to the column next to it at various points usually one towards the top and one at the bottom.  

Once it was all wired together, it was time to put it on the lampshade ring. 

 Here's how I did that:

(Refer to photo below)

 #1.  I hung wires from the ceiling fan in my office.

#2.  I used old wire coat hangers with a hook bent at the top and the bottom.

#3.  I supported the lamp shade ring on the wire hangers so it was free hanging.

#4.  I just want you to notice the center of my lamp shade ring.  It will be important when we install this thing!!

#5.  I attached the ringed creation with jewelry pins strung through a hole in the PVC ring and wrapped around the lampshade ring.

I know this is getting long but stick with me!

Now that my actual shade was put together, I had to figure out how to get it onto the ceiling fan! 

 I totally needed Les' and my combined brain power for this one!

  

There was a decorative threaded nut in the center of the light fixture housing. It is actually part of the light switch on the fan.  This sounded like the best option.  Only problem was we needed the new shade to be lower which could only be done with some sort of spacer.  

 Where do you find such a spacer?  

We searched the house and decided to use an empty prescription pill bottle.  

 Makes sense right?

We drilled a hole in the  bottom of the pill bottle to accommodate the small part of the light switch which protruded down.  Next we cut the 'child proof' part of the pill bottle off a little longer than we needed.  Then we heated up a tin lid on the stove from a can of beans we had for dinner. We pushed the cut off end of the pill bottle onto the tin lid melting the plastic and forming a lip on it.  Once we ran some cold water over it, the pill bottle popped right of the tin lid.  After a test fit, we spray painted the 'pill bottle' spacer to match the finish on our ceiling fan!! 

If you scroll up three photos and look at #4 you will see the center of the lampshade that this pill bottle spacer fits into.  The shade rests on the lip of the spacer, and we just used the original nut to screw the spacer and shade in place!!

Yeah, we rock at unconventional!!

After the shade was in place I attached a large crystal drop to the ceiling fan speed control chain as a pull.  As a final crystal touch I added a giant prism that my son Quinton gave me for Christmas a year or two ago.

  (Yes, he knows his mom likes sparkly things!)

Here's what it was looking like!

Les liked it all open like this,

but it looked naked to me! 

(Maybe that's why Les liked it. lol)

Solution, I added a strip of FrostedWindow Film I had left over from my master bathroom window. 

 Beautiful!

I know you think I'm done, but I'm not!!

This film was not staying flat at the bottom, which really bugged me.  So after searching the workshop I decided to cut a thin strip off this leftover piece of metal roof flashing I had.  I cut it narrower than my Gold Washi Tape .  Then I covered the metal strip with the tape, which was wider than my metal strip.  I then taped it in place. 

I added tape to the other side of this metal strip so it was gold on both sides.

Here is the final product!!

Made from mostly stuff I had laying around!!

It cost me about $10!!

Even if you had to buy everything it would cost around $50, 

which would still be a pretty good deal!

Here she is with the lights on!!

And one more look!!!

Go ahead and take it all in.

This really helps balance the ceiling medallion.

So what do you think? 

This was a lot of work and deserves some comments, 

cool or not cool?

Thanks for stopping by!