Great Budget Friendly DIY Outdoor Candle Chandelier

Jazz up your patio with this DIY outdoor chandelier that gives off beautiful candle light. Such a great upcycle!

The hubs is no longer thinking I'm crazy for holding on to an ugly chandelier that we ripped out of our dining room a while ago. Oh no… now (even though I haven't actually heard it) he is singing my praises cause I took that old chandelier and upcycled it into this fun outdoor chandelier that doesn't even require electricity! I guess the proper term would be Outdoor Candle Chandelier!

How much did it cost me?

Zero. Nada. Nothin'. I reinvented it with supplies I ~~hoarded~~ already had on hand, and I'll show you how you can do the same!

What? You don't have one of these beauties on hand? Well, I see them at garage sales quite a bit, or you might have some luck on Craigslist or a thrift store. The point is, this should be a very low cost project.

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(If you don't want to go through all of that trouble, I found one very similar on Amazon for about 60 bucks.)

You can see this old sad chandelier from the before post of my dining room revamp. We took it down during the remodel, and it made a really great home for the spiders living in our garage. Until now, when it was time to dust it off and give it new life.

I've been working on creating a fun and relaxing outdoor living area and decided that a bit of DIY outdoor lighting over the dining table would be one of those finishing touches to really make the space feel like a room. So I dug it out of the garage and got to work.

I knew I didn't want to deal with electricity at all, so the first thing I did was take the wires out by unscrewing the bulbs and disassembling the chandelier. I cut the wires and took off the metal parts that held the light bulb. That let the little dish parts come off (for painting later).

Once it was all apart, I gave it a coat of paint using the leftover Rust-Oleum Key Lime spray paint that I had from the outdoor curtains I made. I let it dry between coats and turned it to get it sprayed from every angle.

I needed the nut portion of the metal part that held up the bulb to reassemble later, so instead of trying to buy nuts to fit, the (smart) hubs just bent the long part (shown above) until it broke off and we were left with the nut.

Once it was dry, I put it back together and we hung it from our patio cover using the original chain.

Then, I used super glue to attach some small glass votives that I had in my cupboard. You can get these at the dollar store if you don't already have some.

Once it was all dry, it was ready for candles! I used real ones and the light it gave off at night was so pretty. I do live in a high fire area though, so if it is at all windy, I'll switch these out for some fake LED tea light candles.

how to make a candle chandelier from an old dining room chandelier

It's so weird that I didn't like this chandelier before, because now that it's green, I love it!

So let's do a little recap of this space so far. Comfortable outdoor furniture, check! Budget friendly outdoor curtains and the curtain rod, check! Outdoor chandelier, check! And summer is only beginning… go me!