Richard Felt: DIY Rope Chandelier Lighting Update

Hey y’all! It’s Lauren from Bless’er House, and I’m back with more industrial farmhouse-y goodness. I can never get enough of it.

If you’ve never been to my little corner of the blogosphere, I’m constantly working on transforming our cookie cutter subdivision house to resemble a home with lots of character and charm. We’ve already done so much like added a gigantic faux fireplace, made an industrial factory window shower door, and installed a DIY wood beam doorway all on a major budget.

About a year ago, I was on a mission to de-builder grade all of our lighting, and my favorite of them all was this DIY rope chandelier.

We’re always on a strict budget around here, so I wanted to figure out how to make something look expensive and designer without the big price tag. I managed to pull it off for around $20 plus using a simple black chandelier and a few items typically lying around the house.

It was one of those turn-on-a-Netflix-marathon-and-craft-away kind of projects. A bit tedious, but still easy and the results are awesome!

DIY Rope Chandelier

Supplies Used:

Metal chandelier of your choice (Any shape will do. I found mine on Craigslist, but I believe it originally came from Lowe’s.)
A pack of hot glue
1 spool 3/8 inch sisal rope (100 feet)
1 spool 1/4 inch sisal rope (100 feet)
Twine
Sharp scissors
Hot glue sticks and glue gun
A popsicle stick or wooden spoon
1 small hula hoop
1 hand saw (or jigsaw if you prefer)
Loctite super glue (or other brand if you prefer)
A few strips of duct tape

The rope and hula hoop cost me a total of $18 since I had all of the other items lying around our house or in our garage.

The Steps:

I started out first by cutting my hula hoop in one place with my hand saw.

(If you have little ones, do whatever you can to avoid letting them see the destroyed hula hoop. I paid the price on that one with a freaking out toddler. Oops.)

I placed my cut hula hoop inside of my chandelier (pictured below) and marked where to cut any excess to make the hoop fit snuggly. Then, I removed the hoop again to make my final cut.

This was where it got tedious (but still worth it). Start wrapping your 1/4 inch sisal rope by applying hot glue as you wrap.

I had to hold each little wrap into place for a few seconds as the glue cooled to make sure it would stay in place. I used a wooden popsicle stick to hold the rope sections into place with enough pressure without getting my fingers burned. As I finished each chandelier arm, I cut the rope with my sharp scissors.

Once I finished all of the chandelier’s arms, I started wrapping the middle.

And I kept hot glueing and wrapping all the way up.

Then, I did the same on the hula hoop with 3/8 inch sisal rope. I placed the hoop inside of the chandelier one last time to check it and super glued the cut ends of the hoop together. I wrapped the connected ends in duct tape too to make sure it didn’t move.

I kept wrapping and hot glueing until the entire hoop was covered.

To change up the shape a little, I cut 8 pieces of 3/8 inch rope at the same length.

And you guessed it! More hot glue. I glued one end at the top of the chandelier.

And I glued the other end underneath each light. I pressed it in place as the glue dried with a wooden popsicle stick to save my fingers.

I finished off the top with 3 lengths of rope wrapped around it.

For a little added detail and to connect the hula hoop to the chandelier, I wrapped twine around the hoop and arms.

Then we installed it in our dining room and that was it! It makes such a nice statement in here. It’s always a conversation starter when someone walks into our house.