I have to admit, this past January I have been having SO much fun buying things for and decorating my new condo! Maybe a little too much fun! We are nowhere near finished... who knew it took so much work just to pull one room together?! Well, maybe it's because the first room we decided to tackle is our biggest-- the open concept living/dining room and sorta the kitchen too!One thing I've always dreamed of having was a gorgeous chandelier. In the past we've rented and it's kinda like "whatever ugly lighting comes with the place is what you get." So I have never had a really nice light fixture before. And when we first moved in one of the FIRST things that had to change was the ridiculously ugly, apartment-rental-esque ceiling light in the dining area. I wished I had taken a photo to show you how truly yuck it was... but I was too focused on getting rid of it!Anywho... so I really LOVE the look of a Crystal Linear Chandelier. Modern. Yet Blingy. But after having just dropped most of our life's savings on a down payment, we really needed to be budget conscious on the decorating. Luckily I found this amazing DIY tutorial on how to make a linear chandelier on Teal + Lime.So off I went to make my own rad chandy! And I think I really succeeded. There were a few blanks I had to figure out from the DIY instructions I read..so I am gonna walk you through how I did it. It's such a posh and affordable way to jazz up your dining area!Here's what you need:
- Tidig Chandelier from Ikea (I used the one with 6 lamps)
- Crystals!!! (I bought mine here + here from Etsy)
- 26 gauge jewelry wire
- Flat nosed pliers with wire cutters
- Crimping Beads
- Clear Packing Tape
Project Cost: $215Step one is to install the light. My father-in-law did it, but you may need an electrician depending on your knowledge of these things!The Tidig hangs SUPER LOW! The height is fairly adjustable but we adjusted it as far up as it would go. It's still pretty low but it's about 26-28" above our table so it works great!Here's a before picture of the light just installed which I snapped with my iPhone. And yep... that's my father-in-law painting our accent wall in the background (we make him work hard)!
One thing you notice as you shorten the length of the chandelier is there is A LOT of extra, lose wire hanging about...and it is anything but clean and modern looking! So we had to carefully and neatly fold the wires to make it look like one piece and used clear packing tape to hold it together! Now it looks super clean and you don't even notice it!Next step is the crystals!Needless to say, you have to buy the crystals first! That's the funnest + easiest part of the whole project! Watch your budget as it is VERY easy to get carried away. I spent $150 on crystals, which is $40 more than Teal + Lime spent. However, I really like the look of the extra crystals... our final result is one lush and luxe looking chandy! And still the whole chandelier came under $225 which is much less than any one you can buy a brand spankin' new in ANY store I've seen.When buying the crystals look for different shapes + sizes! Varying lengths is so important too! I chose a mix of pendalogues of varying shapes and sizes, rectangular prisms, teardrop prisms, and octagon crystals!Hanging the crystals was another challenge that took some time to figure out. Luckily I have a smart + crafty mother-in-law to help me when it comes to projects like this! We decided to use 26 gauge jewelry wire and crimping beads. First we looped the wire through the hole on each crystal. Then we used a crimping bead to hold and just wrapped the excess wire around the hanging piece of wire. Once we had all the crystals attached to wires, we then looped the other end of the wire around the chandelier. Again using a crimping bead to hold and wrapping the excess wire. ...Hope I explained that well!Here's a visual on how we fastened the crystals...it should make more sense after seeing these details...
We made sure to balance out the shapes and sizes of the crystals and also to hang them at varying lengths! That is super key. A big tip is to stop every handful of crystals you hang, and step wayyyy back. Then evaluate where it needs more of what.The final result...
I'm so in LOVE with how it turned out! And my hubby is too! He compliments it almost daily, how about that?! With the paint up and my chandelier in place our room is really starting to take shape and becpming the place I dream of it being!I'll update more as things progress!xoAshleigh