DIY Three Tier Chandelier

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Hello friends. Hope you had a great Easter weekend and you got lots of treats. The one item I always wish for in my basket is a chocolate bunny. Did I get one this year? Nope! So I’m going to have to talk to the rabbit about that one 🙂

Today I have a really fun lighting project for you, it’s a DIY three tier chandelier that I made for our front foyer with the GE super bright LED Energy Smart light bulbs. So grab your chocolate bunny and settle in to learn how to make yourself a new light.

I’d been wanting to replace the boob light in our foyer since the day we moved in. You know the boob lights, they are just standard fixtures that are put in most houses. After putting up grass cloth wallpaper and accenting the fireplace in navy, the old light just didn’t work for the space. I’d been brainstorming on how to make my own light and since I recently got to try new lights it was the perfect time to exercise my creativity too. Here is how to DIY a three tier chandelier.

Materials

36×36″ sheet of decorative heat grate
Window film
Spray paint {optional}
16 or 18 gauge wire and wire cutters
Wreath form
1″x36″x1/8″ aluminum bar
GE LED Energy Smart light bulbs, available at Target

Tools

Tin snips and scissors
Ruler, pencil, clear tape
Heavy duty gloves
Rivet gun and rivets
Vice or hammer and piece of wood
Drill and drill bits for metal
Eye protection
Small clamps
Respirator and plastic gloves {for spray painting}

Assemble the Tiers

First you are going to assemble the tiers for the lights. To make this I wanted to use decorative heat grates that I’d seen at the home improvement store. They come perforated with designs and I always thought they would make a fun lamp shade. You can make these in any size you think will work, but I based my sizes around a wreath form I picked up at the craft store. It was 18 inches across so the top tier I made to fit around that. Here were the final sizes of my tiers.

Top tier = 6 1/2 inches tall x 56 inches around
Middle tier = 10 1/4 inches tall x 43 3/4 inches around
Bottom tier = 12 inches tall x 22 3/4 inches around

For each piece, cut the length/circumference 2 inches longer to allow for overlap when you rivet them together.

Cut the metal for the height for each tier and then cut them to the circumference after. If you’d like, spray paint one side of each piece. Although these are metal, I wanted them a little metallic looking so I used chrome spray paint {not the silver pictured because I ran out}. Three cheers for spray paint season!

After they dry, cover the opposite/inside side with leftover window film if you’d like. I had some from this project. Since there are perforations in the metal you could see through it pretty well, and I wanted a frosted look to the inside, like a lot of light fixtures you’ll see. Cut the window film to the exact size of the metal sheet and simply stick it on the inside. Or if you want to not use it, you can do that too.

After they are painted and covered with the window film, you’ll use the rivet gun to turn the metal sheets from long rectangles to circles. This was my first time using the rivet gun, but I saw this idea on a light that Sarah Dorsey made on Infarrently Creative here. Plus that project is how I learned to make the structure for the light, but more on that later.

Since this top tier was so big around, I had to put two pieces together since the metal was only 36″ long. Rivet one short end to the other and then cut it to fit around the wreath form.

For the top tier of my light, I specifically assembled it to fit around the outside of the wreath form. I originally intended to use the form to hold the rest of the tiers, but it didn’t end up working out. I still used it to create the top tier, to hold the circle shape and it worked well. Spray paint it before you assemble the tier around it. You can use small clamps to hold the metal to the form while you are cutting to to the right length and riveting it together.

To secure the wreath form to the tier, use 16 or 18 gauge wire cut into little pieces, then poked through the metal. Twist it around the wreath form every few inches and it will stay on just fine.

Assemble the Aluminum Frame Top Structure

Here you’ll use the aluminum bar to make a three-tiered piece to hold the light to the ceiling, or to a pendant kit if you are using one. To do this, I followed the exact instructions on Sarah’s post here. I was always trying to figure out how to make a structure like this to create a tiered light, and this was a great way to do it.

Mr. Decor Adventures took over this part of the project. I have to keep him busy somehow 🙂

Now, here is where the math part of this project comes in {there’s more later too}. Measure the diameter of the top tier and divide by two. That gives you the radius. Add 2 inches to that length and then cut three bars that length.

For mine, the diameter of my top tier was 18 inches. Divided by 2 = 9. Add 2 for where you bend the bars = 11, so I cut three pieces at 11 inches long.

Dan bent one end of each at 90 degrees, and one end at 60 degrees to attach together like Sarah did.

We originally intended to rivet this to the top tier but realize the wreath form rested right on it and we didn’t have to rivet it to the tier. We just riveted it together, making sure the threaded pipe that attached to the ceiling fit inside the aluminum frame.

Super Bright LEDs

For this project I got to try the GE LED Energy Smart light bulbs. I love using environmentally-friendly products in my home and those that use less electric and save us money are at the top of my list. These bulbs are considered the new way to light and 1 LED bulb lasts as long as 15 traditional incandescent bulbs. Plus they use 80% less energy. It’s a win-win. They give off a bright white daylight, not that yellow-ish hue of bulbs past.

So I headed to one of my favorite decor haunts, Target to pick up some new light bulbs. I love the bright stylish displays in Target. You know their products are good and good for your home.

When I got home, I took the shade off the old fixture and discovered two different light bulbs. Reason #1 that I needed to get new bulbs. Plus this is one of the few rooms in our house that has an overhead light fixture, so I wanted to make sure we could dim the lights when we wanted. If you’ve never used dimmable light bulbs, these GE ones are perfect to use. They come in all kinds of sizes, shapes and watts to work for any space in your house.

I was hoping to find some that put out a soft white glow, and that would last us a while, and these bulbs were just the thing. So I put in two new GE Energy Smart bulbs in 70 watt. Then I couldn’t wait to assemble my new light!

Put the Light Together

Once we realized the top tier on the wreath form rested on the aluminum bar structure, I put that up on the ceiling. The fixture had a center threaded rod that we put through the aluminum bars and once I put the nut back on below it, I was on the way to having my light together.

To hang the other two tiers to the aluminum structure, cut three pieces of 16 or 18 gauge wire and bend each end at about an inch. One end will fit into the tier/shade because there are holes in it and the other will hook around the aluminum bar. To make sure you have these in the right place, get ready for more math.

Measure the circumference of the tier/shade and divide by three. You’ll hook a piece of wire into the shade at each of these measurements. Say for example your shade is 30 inches around, hook the wire every 10 inches. That way it will line up with the aluminum frame. Simply place the second tier inside the first one and hook the wire to the aluminum frame.

Repeat with the third/bottom tier and after many hours of math, cutting, painting, and more math, you’ll have yourself your own DIY three tier chandelier! Congratulations. Who knew DIY would involve so many calculations!?

Ready to see the result?

I love the way it looks against the Hale Navy accent wall. When we got it hung up last night and turned on the lights, I literally said “Wow” The bulbs are a super bright LED white. The glow is perfect through the window film and the metal.

Looking at it now, I could see I can add a 4th tier between the top and middle one. For some reason there is a bigger gap there than between the middle and bottom tier. But such is DIY, sometimes you just fly by the seat of your pants!

To get a before and after view, here is the foyer just after I painted the navy wall, with the old boob light. It was way too small.

And here is the space with the new light. What do you think? A definite improvement in my book. Now we can use the dimmable GE light bulbs to light up the staircase, which tends to get kind of dark.

To try out the GE LED Energy Smart light bulbs, print a coupon here or get a $2 off coupon from Target here. Find GE Lighting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and on their web site here. #LEDSavings #CollectiveBias

Did you ever make your own light?

Now you have the secret to create DIY three tier chandelier!

And come back tomorrow for a giveaway that will brighten your mornings 🙂