Outdoor Chandelier

I love repurposing things that other people would consider to be trash.  My latest project is a chandelier for my back patio.  

The previous owners of our home put in the cheapest light fixtures available when they built the house.  We've updated most of them.  The one I used for this project was the foyer fixture.  You can see in the first picture that the fixture was much too small for our two-story foyer.  (And here's the one we replaced it with.)

Materials needed - one chandelier, silver spray paint, 5 solar lights, epoxy, wire cutters, pliers.  Since we already had the chandelier, the materials for this project cost less than $25!

First, we used wire cutters and pliers to remove the globes, bulb sockets, and wiring from the chandelier.  All that was left was the basic structure of the chandelier.  Then we painted it silver.

I found these great stainless steel solar lights at Home Depot for only $3.88 each.  These lights are designed to be stuck into the ground, but it was very easy to remove the stake.  We used some stainless steel colored epoxy to attach the lights to the frame of the chandelier.  (Epoxy is very easy to use.  You cut off a little piece, knead it to combine the two layers, and it dries hard, this one within an hour.)

We replaced the tops of the lights, and voila! - an outdoor chandelier.  Marc hung it in our Japanese maple tree, and it provides the perfect nighttime light for our little bistro table.