Earlier this year, while rummaging through Zero to Vintage, my favourite vintage shop in the town near where I live, I found a very cute chandelier. Now I'm not usually a chandelier type person. They always seem to be too flashy and bling for me but this one, I instantly fell in love with and at £15 it was just too good to miss. It had a kind of vintage feel to it and it was painted with a fabulous distressed finish. It came complete with crystal droplets, which I initially planned to sell because I thought they might not fit in with my house, which is quite old and quite shabby chic, in fact sometimes more shabby than chic, especially when the dogs are tearing round the house like loonies and the cats are shredding the rugs!
It is an electric chandelier. It's all ready to be wired into the house electrics but my ceilings are quite low and I have beams which means that people would be bumping their heads on it if I actually dangled it from the ceiling in the middle of my living room. So, instead of using it as an electric light, I stuck metal bottle tops from wine bottles, the screw top kind, into the holes where the light bulbs were supposed to fit and I put some candles into the metal caps. I then screwed a hook into one of the beams above my dining table and hooked the chandelier over the hook, which is in the far corner of the room and well out of head bashing range. It looked fabulous but it still needed a little something more. Today, I finally gave in and added some crystals but I also added my own cottagey twist by adding some red and white gingham ribbon. I am thrilled with the result.
