Twinkle light Disco Ball Chandelier

Well, Hello there! Welcome back!

I'm kinda excited about something I finally made the other day and wanted to share. I made a chandelier for my bedroom! Yay!  Here it is:

Yes, that is a disco ball with twinkle lights. 

Here's another shot:

 I just happen to have a couple disco balls randomly hanging around, don't you? :) 

I've been walking around in the dark in my room for a while. I was using the closet light and the hall light. Silly huh? I hadn't really figured out what to do about the room's light situation. Quite unusual for me, since I like "stadium lighting" as my family calls it. (You know, a couple 100 watt light bulbs at least, in each room.) Then my sister sent me a pin from Pinterest, showing a lamp shade covered in Christmas lights, check it out here. I figured, why not, I'd give it a try. And with a little personal tweaking, it's totally the perfect answer!

HERE'S HOW I DID IT/ HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN: 

*Buy a cheap lamp shade from your local thrift store. (Got mine for $3.99)

*Strip it down to the metal frame. Yes, rip off all that fringe, the fabric liner and outside fabric, everything, until you're down to the wire. If you;re thinking of painting, it, now's the time. 

*Go dig through the Christmas boxes for a couple strands of lights. (make sure they work before you start to wrap them around!) I used one regular strand of white lights and wove it up and down, from top to bottom of the frame. Then for my second strand, I used white icicle lights and went around the frame (starting at the bottom and going up) so all the icicle parts dangle downwards. You can go crazy and use as many strands as you want. My frame is on the smaller side, so 2 strands did just fine. 

*I had to use some wire to tie down the lights at certain points. The strand of lights going around, wanted to slide up and gather in the middle. (My lamp shade frame had a slight curve to it.) The only wire I could find was really thin jewelry wire. You could even use matching pip cleaners or twisty ties. whatever works for you.

*I bought 3 feet of white chain at Home Depot ( it's $0.98. a ft) to use to hang it, ($3) and some S hooks ($1.99). The chain was quite easy to bend open with 2 pairs of pliers. Way easier than I thought. I did 3 short chains, that meet up into one, which then hooks onto the ceiling hook.  

*Use some of the extra S hooks and chain links to drop down the disco ball in the middle. If you get a spinner hook, even better! 

*Now go hook it up to the ceiling in whatever manner you choose. 

And there you have it! Your very own Twinkle light Disco Ball Chandelier! 

This last picture isn't very pretty, but it has details of how's it's done. You can see the chain, the wire lamp shade frame, the extension cord to plug in the Christmas lights, the cheap cup hook in the apartment ceiling, everything.

This cost me roughly $9 and I have extra chain link parts and S hooks left over. You can change this up and instead of chains, use ribbon or twine, shoe strings, anything really. 

Let's go back and look at the nice picture again.... Reminds me of laying under the Christmas tree, looking up thru the tree and seeing the magic of all the lights. Now I get to have that in my own room. I got the magic year 'round!  :)

If you make yourself a twinkle light chandelier, send a picture. I bet it'll be the coolest thing ever! 

Sweet dreams!

Caroline