DIY Tutorial: Turquoise Bead Chandelier

08 Jul DIY Tutorial: Turquoise Bead Chandelier

I am so excited to finally share this tutorial with you – a tutorial that sprouted in my brain nearly a year ago, as I was walking through World Market.

I spotted this wood bead chandelier,

world market

and instantly, I saw this.

robin degroot

I have loved that Majorie Skouras chandelier for years, and the semi-precious stones on it are beautiful.  Of course, it is also $4800.  (as it should be because it is amazing and spectacular)  So my wheels started turning, and I went up to the cash register, plopped down my 40% off coupon and was promptly told this chandelier was backordered.  I still placed my order and was told it would be a few weeks.  Those weeks turned into months, MONTHS, and finally, I got a call that it was here.  It was great timing too because I wanted to do a piece of lighting over the table in my Home Depot Patio Challenge that was really special.

To do this DIY, the first thing you need to do is tape the chandelier so no paint will get on the cord or bulb area or metal rim that goes along the outside.  This means lots of strips of painter’s tape.  This part is the most time consuming and labor intensive, but it is necessary and important.  (the actual lighting part of the chandelier was wrapped in a grocery bag and taped tightly)  My sweet babysitter, Anna, was the lucky one that got to do this part of the DIY.  She knocked it out during nap time, and she did an awesome job, so many thanks to her!

Because of all of the spray painting, this is definitely an outside job, and it is best to find a place to hang your chandelier where you can see all sides of it.

You can view in this photo how I rigged mine, ha!  The heaviness of the yard cart really held everything together here.  : )

I did prime the chandelier simply because it seemed like the wood beads had a coating on the outside of them, and I was worried the paint would not stick.  Rather, I did not want to take the chance of the paint not sticking, so I primed it.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, just get a light coat on everything.

Next comes the turquoise paint.  I actually bought a few different colors to see which one looked authentic, and Rustoleum’s Maui Blue won hands down.  You need to get it in Gloss.  (I got mine at Home Depot)  I thought this paint ended up looking really authentic when it was all said and done.  The beads have a lovely sheen to them, and it does not look “painted”.  The fact that this paint has an enamel quality to it is to your advantage in this project.

You may be wondering about how to get paint on all sides of the beads.  It actually was not all that hard because the air from the spray paint kind of pushes the beads in a rotation so paint covers the spheres.  That was a nice, unexpected perk of spray painting this fixture rather than brushing it, but I did have to open the bead strands in a few places, stick my arm in, and spray the inside.  I did two good coats and then let the chandelier dry overnight.

The next day, I took all of the tape off (this takes some time!) and touched up places where the paint got through with nail polish remover and a q-tip.  Then it was time to start gluing the yellow beads.  I didn’t know much about beads before I started this project, but after some conversations with local bead stores, I realized it would be best to use cabochon beads, which are flat on on side.   You don’t have to use cabochon beads as long as your beads are not super round.

Gluing the beads took no time at all, and then my chandelier was complete!

I probably won’t keep this chandelier on the porch forever, but it has been fun and pretty to have out there for awhile.