Building This Adjustable Five Arm Brass Chandelier Basically Put Money in My Pocket

As is the continuing saga of my life, I fall in love with light fixtures on a daily basis.  DAILY.  And if see a homeless light fixture, it comes home with me.  Some people adopt pets.  I adopt light fixtures.  Well, I do have two adopted dogs, so don’t throw things at me.

So, when I was planning for Zack’s new room, I desperately wanted a $350 light fixture from Shades of Light.  Y’all, that’s a lot of money to spend on a light for a bedroom.  I’m okay with that kind of cash in a living room, but not so much in a room that not many people will ever see.  However, I was obsessed and really considering it, but then I noticed that it took G9 Halogen bulbs and I CAN’T GET DOWN WITH THAT.

Back to the drawing board.  I knew I wanted a brass fixture that had room for fun bulbs.  After lots and lots of searching, I came across the Odyssey 4 Chandelier from Schoolhouse Electric.  ANOTHER $350 light fixture, y’all.

Okay, so hear me out.  This one is pretty cool.  The socket connectors are adjustable, so you can change the direction of the bulbs.  Fun, right?

But, even though I think it is cool, it is still $350.  And the fact that it had an even number of arms really bugged me.

After some more searching, I came across this post from Mandi at Vintage Revivals and this post from Kelsey at Simply My Simple.  They both pointed to a website where they bought brass parts to build their own chandeliers.

Challenge accepted.

So here’s what happened.  I ordered a bunch of parts and was going to do a tutorial for you on how I built it.  But, my sweet husband put it together one day as a surprise when I was at roller derby practice. I actually really loved that he did that, so sorry that you don’t have a tutorial.  However, Mandi’s and Kelsey’s tutorials will walk you through the general things you need to know.  The rest is like Tinker Toys.

Not including shipping, I paid about $230 for this fixture (including the light bulbs) that also has swiveling socket connectors.  Unless I can’t math, that’s A LOT cheaper than $350 AND it has five arms and fun bulbs (the other fixture didn’t include bulbs).  Score!

Here’s the list of parts that I ordered from Grand Brass.

(1) Jumbo Turned Cluster Body (for the body) 1 x $22 = $22

(5) 10-inch Hollow Brass Lengths w/ Threaded Ends (for the arms) 5 x $4.30 = $21.50

(2) 12-inch Hollow Brass Lengths w/ Threaded Ends (for the down rod) 2 x $5.60 = $11.20

(5) Adjustable Friction Swivels (to connect the arms to the sockets) 5 x 3.75 = $18.75

(5) Brass Socket Cup  (socket cups) 5 x $3.85 = $19.25

(5) Porcelain Socket (sockets) 5 x $1.60 = $8

(1) Hanging Cross Bar (to hang from ceiling box) 1 x $7.80 = $7.80

(1) Brass Flat Base (ceiling canopy) 1 x $19.50 = $19.50

(5) Threaded Hollow Brass Nipple (to connect the arms to the body) 5 x $0.18 = $0.90

(1) Threaded Straight Coupling (to connect the two down rods) 1 x $0.68 = $0.68

(1) Male Slotted Plug (to cover hole on bottom of body) 1 x $0.75 = $0.75

(10) Brass Nuts (to secure connections 10 x $0.12 = $1.20

(5) 5-inch Clear Globe Bulbs (bulbs) 5 x $4.20 = $21.00

(15) Black Wire (internal wiring) 15 x $0.15 = $2.25

(15) White Wire (internal wiring) 15 x $0.15 = $2.25

Also need (but I had on hand):

Wire strippers

Wire nuts

Electrical tape

Woot!  I saved myself some cash and I have an awesome light fixture.  I mean, Zack has an awesome light fixture.  Now, if I could just get him to remember to turn it off before he leaves every morning for school…

P.S. It’s really hard to photograph lighting.  A lot of people do it beautifully, but I am not those people.