If you ever come across an old light fixture that needs a new purpose, go ahead and take him home with you. Any old fixture with exposed candelabra-style bulbs can beautifully and easily become a real candelabra.

A few weeks ago on a rare weekday trip to the ReStore, I found a fantastic old, chippy iron fixture and grabbed it immediately. I know you would have grabbed it, too (and possibly have taken it away from a Hipster couple while they had their backs turned, as I did). It reminds me of an old cathedral.

There was no glass in the fixture, but if there was, I would have needed to remove it. You can also spray paint the fixture a different color if you are dealing with something that is, say, bright gold.

So, I just started by removing all of the electrical elements and innards. And by removing, I mean just unscrewing the lightbulb holder thingy-ma-jigs and cutting the wires with wire cutters. There’s no need to get fancy.

Then, after cleaning the fixture with a soapy water solution, I epoxied a short, thick roofing nail to each arm. I stuffed a tiny piece of paper towel into the old screw holes so that the epoxy wouldn’t drip too far down inside the arm. Epoxy takes about 24 hours to fully set, so super glue may have been a better adhesive to use. Live and learn.

I wanted to make my candelabra look as authentic as possible, so I found some metal couplings in the plumbing fixture section of Home Depot (mine are 3/4 inch wide if you go looking for them) to use as faux candle holders. After testing to make sure my candles would fit inside of them, I primed them with spray primer and then mixed up some acrylic craft paints to get a shade as close to the rest of the fixture as possible. I gave each primed coupling a couple of coats of paint.

After the epoxy was dry, I tried to stick my white taper candles on top of them. Unfortunately, I broke a candle doing that because they were too hard to slide on. So, my genius husband came up with the idea of drilling a hole in the bottom of the candles.

We drilled holes the same size as the nails into the end of the candles and then used the extra shavings to pack the holes so they would hold tight onto the nails. The candles then slid on easily. Just be sure to drill your holes straight! If your candles are too tall, you can also cut a piece off of the bottom with a knife and cutting board.

Once the candles were on the nails, I slid a painted metal coupling over each one.

Now, my new candelabra is ready to join it’s friend, the homeless PB Knock-Off Mirror, at the blue-walled alcove in my entryway. Honestly, I have a plan for that alcove, but I’m missing a vital component – the piece of furniture it’s all going to sit on. Regardless, don’t you love the mirror and candelabra together?

Am I the only one who puts together vignettes before I have the furniture that they are actually going to be put on? Yeah, I probably am. Have no fear, as it will all eventually come together.

It’s difficult to tell from the photos how imperfect and rusty it is, but just trust me. It’s perfectly imperfect.

I am so pleased to have given this forgotten beauty a new purpose, and I’m even more happy that it came out looking just like something that would have cost me $100 at an antique store. That old, chippy light fixture just lights my fire.

When we came upon my now-favorite booth during our trip to the City-Wide Garage Sale, I think an audible gasp could have been heard from within our little shopping group. It was one of those booths that has something you want to buy in every square inch of space. I found a wonderful chippy side table exactly like I’ve been looking for, but the vendor wanted $50 and I wanted to pay more like $10. Thrifting has certainly spoiled me!

At the same booth, we came across a pair of simple, but stunning wreaths made from book pages. The vendor told me that she made them sitting in front of the television. That’s my kind of crafting.

I honestly don’t remember how much she wanted for these lovelies, but I think it was at least $40 a pop.

Yeah, um, that’s way too rich for my blood. How about I show you how to make my version of the same wreath for just $2? Librarians and book lovers, please avert your eyes.

Supplies:

• 10″ foam wreath ($1 at Dollar Tree)
• Paperback novel ($1 at Dollar Tree – depending on the length of the book, you may need two)
• Brown and/or gray craft paint
• Glue gun & glue sticks
• Small strip of ribbon
• A few paper towels
• A few straight pins (optional)

1. Assemble your cast of characters. I felt slightly guilty about purchasing an author’s work from the Dollar Tree for the sole purpose of ripping up. I read a few pages of Loving Charity just to make sure I wasn’t about to destroy a literary classic; let me assure you that I wasn’t.

You could definitely use vintage books, magazines or sheet music for this project or even select a book off of your own bookshelf that you don’t think you’ll read again.

2. Using the paper towels, I applied the brown paint to the edges of the book. I simply squirted some paint onto the towel and wiped it on the book. I painted the brown first and then applied a bit of gray. This will give your book pages a vintage look. To be honest, two colors aren’t completely necessary, so you can use just gray or just brown if you would like.

Lay the book on a clean paper towel for about 5 or 10 minutes to let the paint dry.

3. Cut or tear a page out of the book and roll it in a method of your choosing. I put together a video tutorial to show you some different ways to roll the page if you are interested in seeing how I did it. The main thing to remember is that you want to roll the paper and not actually fold or crease it.

4. After rolling the page, apply some glue at the end of the roll and glue it to the wreath. Make sure that the painted edges are facing up.

You will do this layer all the way around the wreath. When you have finished the full circle, flip the wreath over. That layer will become the bottom. If it won’t lay flat, put something heavy on top of it to flatten it out for a few minutes.

5. Continue rolling pages for your wreath. You will now fold a little tab on the bottom edge and apply glue only to that tab. Work your way from the bottom of the wreath up to the top, finishing one layer before moving to the next.

6. Once you get to the inside of the wreath, roll the paper and apply glue to the edge much like you did with the bottom layer. When you glue it on, the pages will be shorter than the wreath of the wreath. That’s okay.

7. At this point, your wreath will be mostly done, but there will be some sections you need to fill in. It should look roughly like this.

To fill in your spaces, you’ll simply roll a page, apply glue to the ends, and just stick it in the wreath. The filler pages don’t necessarily need to touch the styrofoam wreath; they can stick to the pages already glued to the wreath if need be. Use the filler pages to fill in holes and add some height and visual interest to your wreath.

8. After I was finished filling in, I flip your wreath over and glue your scrap of ribbon on the back to serve as a hanger. I stuck a few straight pins in it to make sure it held tight to the wreath, but that’s purely optional if you glue it on well.

All that’s left to do now is to find a spot to hang your new creation!

Who says that books can only be used to decorate bookshelves and tabletops? Try one on your wall!Added to Kimba’s DIY Day party over at A Soft Place to Land.