DIY Eco-Friendly Chandelier

Lauren collected old vases, wine glasses and other miscellaneous containers from thrift stores to make a chandelier for her tented wedding reception. The chandelier is a full fledged lighting appliance, if its final look wasn’t impressive enough. The light diffuses through layers of glass with different textures, giving a part twinkling, part modern art installation feel.

What you’ll need:
– Triple tier metal Tomato support or staking (Home Depot or Nursery)
– Collection of Thrift store or floral mart vases, wine glasses or cups
– Clear or light metallic thin gauge wire (Home Depot)
– Wire cutters
– Drop in light kits (Ikea or Urban outfitters)
– Power drill
– Metal chain (Home Depot)

Instructions:
Step 1: Go to all different thrift stores and scour shops for some plastic and glass vases, wine glasses, and other unique cups that add character. Tip: Make sure that you find light-weight items, that is why plastic is best. Also, if you find glass items, make sure that they have a lip or some way you can hang them with the wire.

Step 2: After you have collected enough glasses, start work on your chandelier. Clean all the glass and plastic. Wire all the vases or glasses with the thin wire so they hang nicely. Leave a lot of wire so that you can attach it at the very top of the tomato support and it hangs a few inches below below. With the plastic vases or cups you can drill a hole into the bottom and wire it that way.

Step 3: Next, take the tomato support and hang it from somewhere stable ( we used our the inside of our garage door). We also used the metal chains as a link from the three steaks at the top of the tomato support so that we could hang it later in the tent.

Step 4: Drop the light kits into the support and hang them at different heights for even lighting. In our large chandelier we used three kits. TIP: We forgot to do this step, but I still loved my amazing chandelier! If you want you can spray the tomato support white so that it won’t show when you hang the glasses on.

Step 5: Next, start layering the plastic and glass on the outside of the support. This is the hardest but most fun step! Start with the largest items first and then fill in as you go. Take time to step back and find holes or places that need more coverage. At the end we also added mini lantern lights into the mix to give more lighting to the chandelier because it was so large. We also did a mini chandelier for the entrance of the tent and it is the same process, just without the tomato support.