When my contractor asked me if I wanted to take an old, out-of-style 1980s metal chandelier off his hands, I jumped at the chance for an upcycling project. And now I am feeling so glad that I took the opportunity because I am loving the final result of my DIY chandelier! As you know, I have a deep and abiding love for all things gold, so of course I decided that my DIY chandelier should also have a gold color scheme. And to stay on trend, I even added some copper accents. Love!

I started by spray painting the chandelier in a shimmery gold color. Any metallic gold spray paint should work for this project. I ended up picking Rust-Oleum Metallic Gold Indoor/Outdoor Spray Paint (see Shop this Project below!) from my local hardware store, but I have also had good luck with Krylon brand spray paint in the past. Before you begin spray painting, wipe down the chandelier with a wet paper towel or cloth to remove any dust. This is just to make sure that your spray paint will stick evenly and professionally. My chandelier is just over three feet tall and just under three feet wide, so I ended up using around a can and a half of spray paint. Use blue painters tape to protect any areas involving electrical wiring, like where the light bulbs screw into the chandelier. After your first coat of spray paint dries, go back and spray any areas that might need an extra coat. I didn’t end up doing a full second coat, but you are welcome to do so if you think it needs it!

To decorate the chandelier, I used both crepe paper and metallic paper. The crepe leaves are made with the Gold color from our line of extra fine crepe. Of course the number of leaves that you will need for your chandelier will vary depending on the size, but let’s just say that you should prepare yourself to be cutting out a lot! But I promise it will be worth it! Feel free to enlist the help of some little assistants for this project 😉 Use the templates below to cut out your crepe and metallic paper leaves. For the non-crepe leaves, I used three shades of Paper-Papers text weight paper. After you have your leaves cut out, you will want to fold the metallic paper to resemble real leaves. When the leaves are folded, the light will reflect off the chandelier in a gorgeous way! In the SVG file, you should see the score lines of where to fold.

Attach your leaves using a low temp hot glue gun. No matter how you arrange your leaves, my favorite part is creating the leaf cups with crepe paper around the light bulbs. So pretty! I then added leaves around each arm of the chandelier, including a big bunch at the bottom. Choose whatever arrangement would look best with your personal style, specific home decor, or to match whatever size your chandelier is! The mixed paper materials gives it a beautiful textured look that I can’t get enough of! And the chandelier looks wonderful paired with my Hayneedle table and chairs. Find links to those below!

I absolutely love upcycling and, even though this home decor project took longer than most of my other projects, the way that my DIY chandelier turned out made it so worth it. I hope this inspires you to take on some DIY home decor projects of your own! Check out more of my DIY home projects, and don’t forget to share your photos and experiences with me! Share your photos over Instagram by tagging your photos with #DIYDreamingWithLia or emailing them into me at hello@liagriffith.com. Enjoy! ~ Lia

Gold Crepe Paper | Gold Spray Paint | Gold Metallic Paper | Antique Gold Metallic Paper | Copper Metallic Paper | Hayneedle Chairs | Hayneedle Dining Table