DIY (aka Frankensteined) Chandelier || Flip List Item No.3 ||

October 31, 2016 Cate | StyleMutt Home

Happy Halloween Style Mutts! As you may well know that this summer, I made lofty promises that I would soon be posting a BIG REVEAL of my 2016 Furniture Flip Bucket List item No.3... Well, the end of October may not classify as "soon" exactly but what better day for a reveal of a frankensteined chandelier than all hallows eve?

God must've had a good chuckle when I ended my post back in July with "I'm still working on the wiring for the sputnik chandelier and [if all goes well] will be sharing the results soon!" Unbeknownst to me, He obviously knew I was in for a wild electrical wiring ride, a puzzle of a mounting mechanism, and a treacherous install while balancing on the back of our couch.

Before we continue, let's pause for the obligatory disclaimer: I am not an electrician. I built, wired, and installed this light fixture at my own risk. If you are interested in building, wiring, or installing your own light fixture - please do EXTENSIVE research before you lift a finger and consult a professional electrician.

We good? We good.

Ok so this project started when I found an old foyer lantern in August 2015. The bulb apparatus inside was so cool! The staggered lengths. The brass finish. I harvested what looked useful and repurposed the glass shell as an umbrella stand. Now that I had the arms for a sputnik light, I needed to find a body. I was considering building an angular wooden skeleton that I could route wires through until I found a quirky mid-century modern table lamp for a whopping $15.

The lamp's hollow brass square rod was perfect! I officially had what I needed to build the frame.

And in case you're wondering, the rest of the table lamp didn't go to waste either. It became a plant stand:

Making the complete family tree as such:

So at this point, I'm staring at the light-less frame of what could be a really cool chandelier after over a year of planning and I. Am. Stuck.

First off, the hollow cavity in the brass rod I took from the MCM lamp was very very narrow. I tried splicing the existing wires from the foyer light bulbs and running those up through the rod. When I finally hooked it up to a plug in socket to test it, only half of the bulbs were working.

We need more power Igor!

Ruling out a dead light bulb or two, I had to disassemble the entire thing and start from scratch. After consulting a professional at the Lamp Factory Outlet in Fairfax, Va, I learned that I needed to buy a new sockets for the faulty foyer bulb arms. They were so cheap (like $2 each) that I order a new one for each of the arms (just to be safe) and picked up some new 16 gauge stranded copper wire from home depot. I bought the wire in both black and white so I could keep my hot (black) and neutral (white) connections straight for when it came time to install.

When I was researching all these issues, I found this tutorial by ModFruGal to be very thorough and helpful. Plus - they have a shopping list if you a building a brass arm chandelier from scratch instead of going all Dr. Frankenstein on some poor lamp parts.

Once got all the sockets working and threaded the 8 wires (one black and one white per socket) through the center piece, I then had to conjure up a way to cap the center cavity with a chandelier ring to attach the chain to. When working with your standard light, a chandelier ring would simple screw in to the top of your fixture. But this was not standard light and I had to figure out how to secure a round peg in a square hole. Now here is where I MUST reemphasize to not do this at home without consulting a professional first...

I glued it on. I know - not the best solution. I tried metal epoxy and couldn't get a strong enough connection for it to set. I ended up straight up gorilla gluing it. And it's working great so far.

Ok. So now I have a fully wired brass lamp frame (we did it Igor!) but still have to figure out how to install it. Caleb and I are still renting so whatever we did, it had to be reversible. Luckily Home Depot has an awesome recessed can light conversion kit by Westinghouse and our apartment has a can light directly above our dining room table. The kit was really easy to install thanks to a handy step-by-step video.

This is where it gets a little hairy to explain. Not everyone will have the unique problems that I encountered in my non-standard chandelier install, so for your sake, I'll spare you the details. But you can always email me for more troubleshooting deets if you are somehow in a similar pickle.

Even with all my planning and sketching, I didn't have a solid plan for the mounting plate. Luckily I don't often throw things away and I still have the leftovers from the original foyer lantern that started this whole thing. Inside the lantern was a round plate with four holes for each arm and one in the center.

I only needed the hole in the center to thread the wires through the chandelier loop at the other end of the chain. But the extra holes did end up coming in handy. They allowed me to screw the mounting plate onto to the brace assembly from the can converter kit, After it was secure and I could pull my screwdriver out, I capped the four extra holes with some threaded nipples, a few nuts, and four brass finishing caps,

Ok. Enough tech talk. Let's get to the juicy reveal already!!!

In all my mad-sciencing, I didn't think to account for the balance of the varied brass arms.

But I don't even mind that he doesn't hang straight - it gives him an angular mid-mod playful vibe. And hey - Frankenstein's monster wasn't perfect either. He could only say yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarp after all.

Alright Igor - flip ze switch!

So all in all this project was a monster to gather, a monster to build, and a downright monster to install! But when it was all said and done, I still only spent a little over $100 on this project. Although that's a little higher than I like to spend for pieces in our own home, this was still a winner in my book compared to buying new.

Stay safe trick -or-treating out there tonight friends! And if you need something to binge read while you're raiding your candy haul, catch up on the other completed furniture flip bucket list items:

The Light Fixture Family Tree ||why I don't throw things away||

July 25, 2016 Cate | StyleMutt Home

I hate throwing things away. My husband would say that makes me a hoarder. But I believe that makes me resourceful ;) I will often hold on to old parts from past projects until I can find another use for them - and sometimes my... resourcefulness... pays off.

Last summer, I scooped up this faceted foyer light at my local ReStore. I liked the look of the brass + bulb components inside and started thinking, maybe I can repurpose them into a DIY sputnik-style chandelier. So I bought the whole kit-and-kaboodle and promptly took it apart.

After disassembling it however, I couldn't bring myself to scrap the faceted lantern. I thought about turning it into a terrarium or a more functional table lamp again [I have a weak-spot for disassembling light fixtures apparently...] but in the end I brought it to our pop-up shop at Sweet Clover Barn and sold it as a dainty umbrella stand.

As for the original "guts" that had inspired the DIY chandelier on my 2016 furniture flip bucket list - well, I held on to those babies for almost a year [much to my minimalist-of-a-husband's dismay]. Until I found this lamp...

Behold! That tall, handsome, square piece of brass pipe that's the perfect length. I finally had all the pieces I needed for the frame of my sputnik light!

Dare I say it, but I think I have harvested almost all the parts I need for item no. 3 on my 2016 #furnitureflipbucketlist: build a chandelier (from SCRATCH). I crazy. I know. I also am not sure if this will even work but still gonna give the ol' college try (even if it takes me all year - so don't get your hopes up if I don't post a reveal anytime soon 😁) #lettherebelight #diy #decor #chandelier #eclectic #ifrankensteinprojects #brass #mcm #midcenturymodern #stylemuttprojects #ihopethisworks

A photo posted by StyleMutt Cate (@cate_stylemutthome) on Jun 20, 2016 at 4:17pm PDT

But after I had my hands on the brass pipe I needed, I still had the other perfectly-good components of the table lamp to play with - like the 4 decorative pieces of turned wood. After stumbling on a $2 round wooden tray at the thrift store, I soon had a plan for those too: a mid-century modern plant stand.

So just to recap, here's a handy infographic on how one old lantern and one old table lamp came together to make 3 new beautifully functional pieces and nothing was wasted in the process!

I'm still working on the wiring for the sputnik chandelier and [if all goes well] will be sharing the results soon! In the meantime, I'm curious if any of you have created your own diy family trees by repurposing project left-overs. Please share in the comments below!

Oh Grow Up... Art ||Flip List Item No.4||

May 23, 2016 Cate | StyleMutt Home

For a few months now, my collection of original abstract artwork has felt...off. It's like you're trying to copy your mom's crowd-pleasing artichoke dip and yet it just doesn't taste the same when you do it - you feel me?

In an effort to solve this art conundrum, I declared "Grown-Up Abstract Art" as item No.4 on my furniture flip bucket list and began to do some research on what ingredients may be missing from my art collection. After consulting pinterest, I kept stumbling on some delicious abstract art showcased in gorgeous, minimal floating frames.

And so my first theory was formed. I rummaged up some spare wood trim to fashion a make-shift gold frame for one of my smaller pieces, but when I finished it still felt juvenile somehow.

Using my day off to work on a #furnitureflip #bucketlist item: grow up my artwork. I'm starting by experimenting with #diy modern frames. We'll see where this goes... #abstractart #floatingframe #gold #stylemuttprojects

A photo posted by StyleMutt Cate (@cate_stylemutthome) on Feb 26, 2016 at 11:54am PST

After mulling over it for a little while longer, I began to think that perhaps my portions were off. I love to paint but I'm no professional artist - when I paint, I can't help myself: I love ALL THE COLORSSSSSS. But perhaps I need to balance out the generous helpings of bold pops of color with some graphic patterns and white elements like this large piece I painted to help stage the cowprint bench. [It actually sold at our Pop-Up Shop at Sweet Clover Barn so I never got the chance to mix it into my new abstract art recipe.] And interestingly enough, despite my obsession with large-scale abstract art, I don't actually have any pieces hanging in our apartment.

Ok so let's meet the "art ingredients" I do have in stock and let's see if we can mix them together for a winning combo.

Van Gogh's Les Alyscamps — Van Gogh's *Les Alyscamps*

"Les Ales Camps" - a 3rd Grader made this piece at a school I worked for. The elementary art program was doing a series on Van Gogh and this young artist was studing Van Gogh's Les Alyscamps (which she mistakenly labeled as "Les Ales Camps" in the top right corner lol. I loved the playful take so much that I had it printed on a canvas to hang in my office.
"Unnamed" - this is the largest piece of abstract art I've done and yet I haven't found a place for it. I think I feel like it would overpower any of our small spaces so I've never hung it in our home.
"Hadley" - this is the piece I tried to give a floating frame. I think the proportions are off and I would like it better if the frame were thinner and little daintier.
"Picasso" - this is another piece I can't take credit for. I just love this line drawing so much that I traced it on some paper and popped it in a frame - forgive me Pablo P.
"A Riot of Color [in a dreary world]" - name that movie! I painted this poppy-inspired piece while watching a Heath Ledger favorite (may he rest in piece). You may recognize this pop of red from staging this piece here.

For plating purposes, I've enlisted the help of a fresh flip who'll be heading to his new home in DC soon [I removed the original toe-kick and added tapered legs with the nickle caps cut off and painted the top and sides a glossy white].

Art Recipe No.1:

Playful "Les Ales Camps" with a side of "Picasso" garnished with plant, brass candlesticks and record player served on a Mid-Century Record Console Table with storage for your vintage record collection.

[How cool is that rolling door for space-saving storage?! And there are four compartments inside with removable vertical dividers.]

To combat my tendancy to over-saturate with color, my thought here was to pair the two "lighter colored" art pieces on a white-wall background. The smaller graphic "Picasso" cuts the intensity of the color in "Les Ales Camps" and the record player.

Art Recipe No.2:

A large helping of "Unnamed" abstract with a side of "Picasso" drizzled with candle sticks and a fern for garnish. Since "Unnamed" is such a powerful flavor, I also tried to soften it with the dainty print and anchor it with a large plant.

Art Recipe No.3:

Spiced "Riot of Color" and "Hadley" with creamy "Picasso" served with natural elements encased in glass cloches and garnished with a potted fern.

[Look at that gorgeous wood grain in the slats of the console table's rolling front.]

Since I was using two bold paintings, I again employed the "Picasso"print and accented with the airiness of the glass cloches.

[Fun fact: the stand for the raw mineral is just one of my fluted candlesticks turned upside down].

Which recipe hit the spot for you? Any suggestions on how to make my art collection more flavorful/ refined/ spicy? Leave your tips in the comments below!