DIY Beaded Chandeliers – How to Make and Style them.

by John A March 30, 2021

DIY Beaded Chandeliers – How to Make and Style them.

Want attractive and fascinating decoration and lightening in your home? Well, you can have both decoration and lightening from Beaded Chandeliers. If you want decoration with the feature of lightning, then beaded chandeliers are the best way to do it without remodeling the whole thing. Beaded Chandeliers can be placed in the dining room, bedroom, or even in the kitchen for an elegant look. Though there are many kinds, types, and styles of chandeliers, the beaded chandelier is the nowadays trend.

An Introduction to Beaded Chandeliers

The word “Chandelier” is a French word that means candlestick. The concept was for lightning but now most people buy or make chandeliers for decoration fashion than its function.

A branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on the ceilings of walls. In simple words, it is a decorative light that hangs from walls or ceilings which may have either branch for light bulbs or candles.

Before its popularity as decorative suspended lights, it was just a symbol of social standing. Before their use in royal places and castles, they were used in Europe in the 9th century by the church.

As the name suggests, these types of chandeliers are beaded. Beads can be either stone, wood, crystals, bones or glass, etc. These can be bought from stores and the prices are often affordable.

How to Choose a Beaded chandelier:

One of the most important things to keep in mind while going to the market and looking for a beaded chandelier is to choose a style and design that will best suit your house.

The Lighting of a Chandelier:

Most of the chandeliers create ambient lighting because they create diffused and non-direct light. Based on how the lighting of the chandelier works and affects the room there are the following types of chandeliers:

Up-light Chandeliers:

These chandeliers are built in such a way that they focus the light in an upward direction. These chandeliers create a reflected ambiance in the room rather than a direct light.

Down-light Chandeliers:

These chandeliers focus unobstructed light downwards. They create a lot of direct light and are the best option when you want focused light in your room.

Some of the Most Famous Types of Beaded Chandeliers:

Some of the Most Famous Shapes of Beaded Chandeliers.

The shape of the chandelier also makes a huge impact on how it would look in a certain setting. You can choose from the following shapes according to your own choice and the place you are planning to hang it in.

Shaded Chandelier: If there is brushed glass surrounding the individual lights, it’s a shaded chandelier.
Crystal Chandelier: In this type of chandelier, series of a bulb is surrounded by glass crystals that reflect the light throughout the room.
Candle-Shaped Chandelier: As the name suggests, it is a chandelier in which lights look like candles.
Mini-Small Chandelier: It is the chandelier for smaller spaces. It is convenient for those places which cannot afford larger-sized chandeliers.
Drum Chandelier: As the name suggests, it is the chandelier whose shape is like a drum. It is great for bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens, etc.
Sputnik Chandelier: It is the chandelier with a series of light branches extending from the center which looks like a light explosion. It looks cool though.
Island Chandelier: In this chandelier, series of lights sit on branches or arms which are horizontally attached to the center.
Waterfall Chandelier: In this chandelier, lights and crystals appear to be falling. The base can be either round or rectangular.
Cage Chandelier: As the name suggests, its shape is like a cage in which lights appear to be caged.
Hybrid Chandelier: In this Chandelier, more than two chandelier shapes or styles are combined to make one.

What to keep in mind while Choosing a Perfect Beaded Chandelier:

To choose the perfect modern chandelier for your home, you need to keep in mind a few factors that affect how the chandelier would look. Here are the points to be taken care of:

Position:

The position on which the chandelier is hanging matters a lot. The chandelier needs to be centered as much as possible. This positioning will make the light spread equally in all directions.

Height:

The height of the chandelier should not be so high that it doesn't provide enough light and not so low that it could cause collisions or the light causes discomfort.

Brightness:

The third most important thing to be considered while choosing the perfect chandelier is the brightness of it which is counted according to the square footage of the space.

DIY (Do it yourself) Beaded Chandeliers

Although, you can buy beaded chandeliers online or from stores that might get expensive. On the other hand, you can make your own beaded chandelier for 30$ only.

The difference between self-made chandeliers and the bought-from-store chandelier is that bought-from-store chandeliers are professionally made and can have designs of every type and style. On the other hand, self-made chandeliers are simple and classic but professional chandeliers can also be made if the correct amount of time and hard work is devoted.

As a sample, DIY Wood Beaded Chandeliers is shown below

In making a Beaded Chandelier, the basic requirements are:

10 Inch Quilting Hoop.
3 Inch Quilting Hoop.
Mini pendant light kit.
String.
Paint.
Skewers.
Paint Brush.
Electrical Tape.
Quilting Thread.
Quilting Needle.
Wood Glue.
Super Glue.
Thin Gauge Wire.
Beads

No matter what type of beaded chandelier you are making, you will need beads in bulk amount. If you want to follow the exact steps mentioned here, then you are going to need 1300 beads.

For example, for Wood Bead Chandelier you need wooden beads, for Glass Bead Chandelier you need glass beads, etc.

The price of the beads also depends on the nature of the beads. Wooden beads would be more affordable than glass beads which in turn would be more affordable than crystal beads.

Though the color of the chandelier beads depends on your choice but most used colors for beads are black and white.

Guide for the upper part of Beaded Chandeliers

First, work with the 3-inch hoop and 10-inch hoop. Work with the inner hoops and remove the outer hoops-for now.
Secondly, you need to thread the needle with thread then double it up, and at the end knot it.
Now over the 3-inch quilting hoop, loop the thread 3 times.

With the specific pattern in mind, string the beads on the thread and if you haven’t had any pattern in mind, use this one: 10 small beads then 1 medium bead, after this one small after one medium, and repeat it 12 times. To have 13 medium beads in each row, finish each row with a medium one.
Now, you need to tie every strand to the 10-inch quilting hoop.
Keep continuation till the Wood Beaded chandelier is full. To give it more of a texture, you can cut the extra thread. It would get this shape by now.

Guide for the lower part of Beaded Chandeliers.

Remove the outer hoop from your second 3-inch hoop.
Secondly, you need to thread the needle with thread then double it up, and at the end knot it.
Now over the 3-inch quilting hoop, loop the thread 3 times.
With the specific pattern in mind, string the beads on the thread and if you haven’t had any pattern in mind, use this one: 1 small then 1 large. Repeat it five times.
The next step is tieing the strand to the same 10-inch quilting hoop. The 10-inch quilting hoop would sit over the 3-inch quilting hoop which you are working with, will provide you with the bottom of the Beaded Chandelier.

Add at least 4 strands and you can more if you like.

Guide for the Final Beaded Chandelier.

To ensure that the knots don’t come loose, add super glue to each knot.
Now, you need to paint wood glue along the inside of the outer hoop. Repeat it with every outer hoop. After doing that, you need to tighten them to secure them.
After doing the above step, remove the screw from every hoop when the glue has dried. If any part of the hardware is sticking out, remove that part.

Guide to Attach the Pendant Light.

Along each side of the Top hoop, drill two vertical hoops using a small drill bit.
Circle the wire around the cord of the pendant light after running the wire through one hole. After that, you need to thread the cord via the other hole.
To ensure that the light does not slip down, below the circle of wire around your cord wrap the electrical tape. If you want to make it less noticeable, cover the electrical tape with golden tape. Secure the ends of your cord by wrapping them.

After following these steps, your beaded chandelier or Wood beaded chandelier is complete. Now go and hang it and if you don’t know where to hang it, read the tips below:

Tips for Hanging Beaded Chandeliers.

To give your chandelier a focal point to the room, hang the chandelier in the center of the room.
Use small chandeliers for the smaller area with comparatively brighter lights.
The height of the chandelier must be 8 feet and no lower than that if you are going to hang it in the entryway.
Use a dimmer chandelier for hanging it in the bedrooms.
Using more than one chandelier at a time is also fine especially in the kitchen or entryways.
To make it work as a perfect light source, place it on the center of the table in the dining room.

Stylizing Beaded Chandeliers.

If you already have a beaded chandelier then you don’t have to make or buy a new one just to replace the old one. You can stylize your chandelier to make it more fascinating and attractive than before.

Adding Crystals

First of all, measure the length of crystals you need or want to add to your chandelier. Then to create an elegant look, weave the loose end of a ball of string throughout the arms of your chandelier. Cut the string and measure the length of the string. This is the length of the crystal strand.
Secondly, you need to calculate how many bobeches and crystals you need to modify your chandelier. A bobeche is a collar that is designed with pinholes to suspend crystals. It fits over the chandelier. To determine how many bobeches you need, calculate the number of lights on your chandelier. To determine how many crystals you need, calculate the number of pinholes and multiply that with the number of bobeches.
Now according to your personal preference, select the color of the crystals.
Fit a bobeche over each light socket by removing the light bulbs. Now you need to attach one end of a crystal hanger through a hook and on each pinhole of every crystal hang one crystal.
From the spool, snip off 2 six-inch pieces of craft wire. Now secure one end of six-inch wire pieces by wrapping its end over the crystal strand. Now, secure the remaining loose ends of crystal strands to the chandelier arm.

After this step, you have successfully added crystals to your chandelier.

Conclusion:

Making and styling chandeliers or beaded chandeliers isn’t just a great hobby but also a great skill to have but if you want to make your chandelier to hang at your home, it is advised to use a professional beaded chandelier as there are plenty of sites providing luxurious with various designs and economical ones with great quality so you won't have to go through all the hard work just to get and style your favorite beaded chandeliers.

DIY Beaded Chandeliers – How to Make and Style them.